(War Crimes and Crimes against Humanity)
Wake up call
to the UN Human Rights Council
Appel la prise de conscience du
Conseil des Droits de l'Homme - Nations Unies
Llamado para reaccin urgente del
Consejo de Derechos Humanos-Naciones Unidas
Website : www.tchr.net
4th session / 4me session / 4 perodo de sesiones
12/03/2007 -- 30/03/2007
LOGO
Tamil Centre for Human Rights - TCHR
Centre Tamoul pour les droits de l'Homme - CTDH
Centro Tamil para los Derechos Humanos
(Established in 1990)
In Sri Lanka - A person is abducted every five hours!
"It has been reported by local and international human rights organisations that a person is abducted every five hours. Kidnapping, abductions, killings have now become common incidents. No matter who does it, as a government we are responsible for it."
Mangala Samaraweera, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Port and Aviation Minister.
Letter written on 23 January 2007
Sri Lanka faces international isolation
"Sri Lanka faces international isolation for failing to pay close heed to human rights issues",
Former Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mangala Samaraweera. AFP, 15 February 2007.
Mangala Samaraweera and two other Ministers were sacked
by the Executive President Mahinda Rajapaksa on 9 February 2007
Human rights violations with President's consent!
Samaraweera further states that when he was Foreign Minister, some countries even charged that the President had to remain silent in the face of human rights violations because he could not control certain sections in government.
"Some others alleged that the human rights violations were taking place with the President's consent", he has said.
(Former Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mangala Samaraweera of Sri Lanka,
Sunday Leader, 25 February 2007)
Sri Lankan police, troops involved in abductions - Police chief
6 March 2007, COLOMBO (AFP) - Sri Lanka's police chief said police and security personnel have been involved in ransom kidnappings of civilians, vowing to crack down on mounting abductions and killings.
Police Inspector General Victor Perera said Tuesday that a "large number" of police officers and troops had been arrested on charges of abduction and extortion. In some instances ransoms had been paid abroad.
Tamil Centre for Human Rights - TCHR
Centre Tamoul pour les droits de l'Homme - CTDH
Centro Tamil para los Derechos Humanos
(Established in 1990)
Website : www.tchr.net
TCHR participation in United Nations World conferences
and other meetings
* The Tamil Centre for Human Rights (TCHR) officially accredited to participate in the United Nations Conference on Anti-corruption Measures, Good Governance and Human Rights, in Warsaw, Poland 8–9 November 2006.
* A meeting was held on 7 March 2006, in the European Parliament – titled "EU contribution to the peace process in Sri Lanka". This was jointly organised by TCHR and Mr. Robert Evans, a member of European Parliament of Labour Party in UK.
* Accredited by the United Nations to participate in the World Summit on the Information Society – WSIS in Tunisia, 16 – 18 November 2005.
* Officially participated in the NGO forum of the UN World Conference Against Racism – WCAR in Durban, South Africa, from 28 August to 1 September 2001. TCHR held an information stall including an exhibition at the forum. The TCHR representatives also attended the main WCAR conference held in Durban, 31 August to 7 September 2001.
* A meeting was held on 14 October 1998, in the European Parliament – titled "Press censorship in Sri Lanka". This was jointly organised by the Tamil Centre for Human Rights (TCHR) and Ms. Anita Pollack, a member of European Parliament of Labour Party in UK.
* In 1993, held an information stall and a photo exhibition on human rights violations, in the United Nations 2nd World Conference on Human Rights held in Vienna, Austria, from 14-25 June.
* TCHR participates in meetings of Treaty bodies and submits reports to the same.
Fact finding missions to the North East of the Island of Sri Lanka
* May 2003 (http://www.tchr.net/report_studymission_2003.htm)
* December 2003 – addendum report (http://www.tchr.net/report_studymission_2003add.htm)
* July-August 2004 (http://www.tchr.net/reports_visite_2004.htm)
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Branches
Australia, Canada, Denmark, Norway, Switzerland, The Netherlands, United Kingdom
Appeal 03
Comparison on Right to Self-determination 05
Message of H. E. Jacques Chirac 06
UN intervention - the new bug
UN several thousands reported fleeing
UN calls for the protection of civilians in Sri Lanka 07
IMF Quits Sri Lanka - may return! 08
Donors warn against escalation of Sri Lanka conflict
Defence costs blast economy 09
Hardline Sri Lanka monks mobbed us -- Dutch aid group 10
HR violations galore in 2006 11
Batticaloa attack - Security negligence? Daily Mirror
Diplomats escapes from artillery fire - LTTE apologized for the incident 12
Ministry of Foreign Affairs – Italy 13
An anti-war rally disrupted by a band of assailants
Anti-war organiser attacked - Deputy Minister was leading the gang!
Sri Lanka faces international isolation – Sacked, Minister of Foreign Affairs 15
"A part of the government is involved in abductions"
Sri Lankan police, troops involved in abductions - Police chief 16
"Sri Lanka has the highest levels of disappearances in the world."
Vice Chancellor reported missing in the capital Colombo 17
Global appeal for release of Vice Chancellor Raveendranath
Amnesty Appeal on VC Raveendranath 19
Sri Lanka's abduction industry has top academic in its grip 20
No breakthrough in Ravindranaths abduction 21
Disappearances in human rights law 22
Abductions carried out by the Paramilitary outside North East
Five headless bodies in an estate at Avissawella
4000 dead in past 15 months – SLMM 27
Calls for witness protection - BBC Sinhala Service
Lankan inquiry of no use says former SLMM Chief
Experts return 'empty handed' 29
Calculating risk - Guardian, UK 30
Security Forces Gun Down Evangelical Pastor in Sri Lanka
Christian Pastor shot dead by the Sri Lanka Army in Jaffna 31
Threats and Attacks in Southern Sri Lanka 33
Sri Lankan Government made Jaffna Peninsula as an open prison 34
Method of Torture
2000 Civilians killed and disappeared
Arrest and detention
Tamil detainees were on fast unto death 35
Arrests of Tamils continues!
Sri Lanka's Upcountry Tamils are more prone to arrest 37
'Hundreds of' Indian Tamils detained
List of detainees from Selvanagar army camp transferred to Boossa prison 38
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Reporters without Borders - RSF - Annual report 2007 39
Arrest of Director of publishing house in Sri Lanka! 40
Female journalist Mawnasamy Parameshawaree
Newspaper linked to Sri Lanka`s Foreign Minister raided
Harassment of "Mawbima" Weekly 41
Journalist reported missing in Jaffna
Sri Lankan state crackdown on Independent Media – WPRM 42
Open letter to the donor countries ambassadors – RSF 43
Government told to renounce war against media 44
Journalists flee country due to security fears and death threats
Mystery over arrest of three suspects 45
Akuna newspaper staff abducted 46
Print and Ink Shortage in Jaffna Undermines Press Freedom – IPI
Sri Lankan journalists protest killings, unofficial censorship 47
IFJ demands full investigation into death threats against journalists
Condemnation of attack against journalist 48
Concerns about the dire situation of media in Sri Lanka
"Thinakkural" Journalist M. A. M. Nilam threatened by Minister Fowzie 49
International mission find deteriorating security situation for media
Journalist's house attacked 50
Assault on Journalists
Shocking violations of journalists rights continue in Sri Lanka
Photo journalist assaulted and his camera snatched by police 51
10,000 copies of Tamil Daily Virakesari burned by Paramilitary group 52
IFJ denounces bombing of Voice of Tigers in Sri Lanka
Displaced people in Batticaloa district – ICRC 53
Sri Lanka – ICRC Bulletin, 19/01/2007 54
20,000 displaced face tough time in eastern Sri Lanka (UNHCR) 55
Tens of thousands of IDPs without protection and assistance
Over 209,000 newly displaced in 2006 (October 2006)
The current displacement situation - UNHCR 56
Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC) Situation Report 22 February 2007
Ampara District
Batticaloa District
Trincomalee District 57
Vavuniya and Mannar Districts
Kilinochchi & Mullaitivu Districts 58
MSF Responds to ongoing violence in Sri Lanka
What are the conditions on the whole of Jaffna peninsula? 59
How has the situation evolved since MSF was in Point Pedro?
The Situation in Jaffna – the major problems
Annexes
Karen Parker's letter to the United Nations VIPs 60
President Rajapaksa's 14-month achievements - by Jayantha Gnanakone 63
ACTC calls for UN peace keeping force in Lanka 64
Protest against the deteriorating conditions in Education 65
TCHR summary from August 2006 (names, dates, place of incidents etc)
Arbitrary arrest / detention 66
Extra judicial killings / summary executions 71
Enforced or involuntary disappearances 89
2
1211 Geneva 10, Switzerland
Distinguished Sirs / Mesdames,
We regularly report on the human rights violations taking place in the Island of Sri Lanka. Our reporting and summary of victims is based on indisputable facts, the authentic details of which are sent to us by our representatives directly from the spot where the incidents occur.
In this submission, we take stock of the last few months of violations perpetrated by State and Paramilitary terrorism in Sri Lanka, with authentic evidence.
Sirs / Mesdames, when we consider the history of the island, evidence proves that three different kingdoms existed in distinctly separate areas, before the arrival of the first colonialists, the Portuguese, in 1505. One of these three was Tamil, and was known as the Jaffna Kingdom, covering the area of the North and East, the Tamils' hereditary regions. From 1833 onwards all three kingdoms were brought under one administration by then colonial power, the British, for their administrative convenience.
Even prior to the Independence of the island in 1948 from the British, there had been many negotiations between Tamil leaders and Sinhala leaders to resolve the ethnic conflict.
It is to be noted that the armed conflict started only in 1983, after the failure of 35 years of peaceful non-violent struggle by the Tamils to protest against the Sinhala oppression. All protests were suppressed by violent means by the Sri Lankan security forces, inflicting loss of many lives and much material damage to the Tamils.
After independence, talks between Tamil leaders and Sinhala leaders (the latter being either Prime Ministers or President) to resolve the ethnic conflict in the island, led to the signing of some agreements which were then unilaterally abrogated by the then Prime Ministers.
Two important agreements of 1957 (Banda – Chelva Pact) and 1965 (Dudley – Chelva Pact) were unilaterally abrogated by the Prime Ministers. The MoUs signed between the LTTE and governments of Sri Lanka were also abrogated in 1994 by then President Chandrika and in 2005 by President Rajapaksa.
As far as the human rights situation in the North East is concerned, it has been deteriorating since independence. Sinhala colonisation in Tamil hereditary regions, anti-Tamil pogroms in 1956, 1958, 1977, 1981, and 1983, systematic cultural genocide, pre-meditated Mafia style killings, arrests, detentions, abductions, disappearances, multiple displacements of people, rapes and gang-rapes of Tamil women, and a systematic economic embargo to the North East are also part of the sad history of the Tamil people.
Enforcement of an economic embargo since 1987 with few intervals, starving the people to death and imposing calculated dire hardships and immense difficulties is part of the ethnic cleansing.
The situation of the Internally Displaced People (IDPs) remains intolerable. In the North East, the security forces have created High Security Zones in the vacated premises of the IDPs, occupying civilian homes and buildings.
The introduction of the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) in 1979 and more than 37 years of emergency rule (ER) have inflicted terror upon the Tamil people in the island. ER and the PTA permit the Sri Lanka security forces to arrest, torture, rape and kill the Tamils with impunity. The PTA has given a free hand to the security forces to shoot people in cold blood in the name of "fighting terrorism".
Presently over a thousand Tamil political detainees are in detention in various prisons. They were arrested under the PTA, the ERs and the draconian new law, the Prevention and Prohibition of Terrorism and Specified Terrorist Activities Regulations (PPTSTAR). The authorities should either institute legal action against them or release them without any further delay.
Press freedom and freedom of expression are in peril in Sri Lanka. Journalists are arrested, tortured, abducted, disappeared and killed over-night. Misinformation is heavily used by the Sri Lankan government to distort the real picture of what is happening in the conflict areas.
Since the present Executive President, Rajapaksa, who is the Commander in chief of the Sri Lankan security forces, took office in November 2005, the North East has been facing a merciless and bloody war, in which the vast majority of victims are Tamil civilians. The daily occurrence of abductions, disappearances, political killings, aerial bombings and artillery shelling are causing terrible hardship to the people in the North East, in Colombo and in the up-country area where Tamils are also severely affected by disappearances and killings.
3
Impunity is a very serious problem in Sri Lanka. Many notorious human rights violators in the Security forces have got the best promotions. Some are appointed as Defence Secretary, Ambassadors in foreign countries and also given special awards by the head of state! The mercenaries, the Paramilitaries are also given Ministerial posts, VIP security and highly protected Luxury accommodation in Colombo. They are also paid a lump some for their gruesome service to the state.
Sirs / Mesdames, according to article one of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights -ICCPR and International Covenant on Economic and Social and Cultural Rights - ICESCR, the demand for the right to self-determination of the Tamil-speaking people is their birth right. In the free and fair elections held in July 1977, the Tamil people overwhelmingly voted to establish and exercise the Right to Self-determination in the North East. It is a surprise, why this democratic mandate is continuously ignored by Sri Lanka and the international community.
For the last twenty four years, the LTTE has been engaged in an armed struggle with the support of the Tamils in exercise of this right to self-determination in the Tamil hereditary regions.
In the last General elections in Sri Lanka (April 2004), the political party "Tamil National Alliance (TNA)" won overwhelmingly in 22 electorates in the North East. Their election manifesto stated, "Accepting LTTEs leadership as the national leadership of the Tamil Eelam Tamils and the Liberation Tigers as the sole and authentic representatives of the Tamil people, let us devote our full cooperation for the ideals of the Liberation Tigers struggle with honesty and steadfastness".
After nearly a quarter century of armed conflict, there is a de-facto government in the Tamils' hereditary region under the LTTE administration. It has been in existence for more than 15 years and it has its own infrastructures.
The Tamil Eelam police and judiciary are functioning well and are maintaining law and order within this de-facto state. The Tamil Eelam Law College has built up its professional expertise and both the police system and the judicial system have the confidence of the people, and comply with international standards. Also the Banking and Educational institutions are in place, as well as welfare centres for children, disabled people, elders and war victims.
Since independence, successive Sinhala governments, rather than finding a genuine political solution to the ethnic conflict in the island, have sought aggressive and military options. Clearly breaching the Ceasefire Agreement (CFA) and declaring war, the current government is seeking a military solution to the islands bloody ethnic conflict at this very moment. In the meantime the government is trying to create political turmoil between the Muslim and the Tamil people, who have lived together in harmony for centuries.
Sirs / Mesdames, you all are well aware that since last October Diplomats of the European Union took the initiative and Finland as the holder of the EU presidency tabled a draft decision 2006/..... Sri Lanka (A/HRC/2/L.37) in the Human Rights Council. Unfortunately, as anticipated by many, this was unsuccessful in the past sessions and it is doubtful whether it will be successful even during the current sessions.
International human rights law and international humanitarian law are being severely and massively violated by Sri Lanka. Considering all the ground realities and administrative difficulties, the best mechanism in hand which can be used, is to charge the President of Sri Lanka, the Commander-in-Chief of the Sri Lanka security forces and other military officials with War Crimes and Crimes against Humanity.
Given the current situation, there will not be a durable solution in this island, unless the Sri Lankan security forces, composed of 99% Singhalese personnel, are withdrawn from the Noth East and a mediated political solution to the island's conflict is found.
As an urgent need – the welfare of the IDPs has to be taken care of, by international institutions.
A reflection on the global experiences of resolving ethnic conflicts, before and after the establishment of the United Nations, shows that Norway-Sweden, Malawi-Central African Federation, Eastern European countries, Eritrea, East Timor and Kosovo, have all found their durable solutions with the support of the International Community.
The International Community needs to realise that it is failing in its duties regarding Sri Lanka and that it is backing an aggressor which is perpetrating crimes against humanity against a people struggling for their Right to Self-determination for many decades.
Thank you,
Yours sincerely
S. V. Kirubaharan
General Secretary
4
Tamil homeland (Tamil Eelam), compared with some countries
which are member states of the United Nation
Country Population (Square Miles)
Antigua & Barbuds 81,500 171
Bahmas 235,000 5,353
Bahrain 416,275 265
Barbados 253,055 166
Belize 171,000 22,963
Bhutan 1,30M 18,000
Botswana 1,13M 222,000
Brunei Darussalam 221,900 2,226
Cape Verde 350,000 1,557
Comoros 422,500 1,557
Cyprus 673,100 3,572
Djibouti 470,000 8,960
Dominica 94,191 290
Ecuador 384,000 10,831
Fiji 714,000 7,078
Gabon 1.22M 104,557
Gambia 698,817 4,180
Grenada 88,000 133
Guinea-Bissau 935,000 13,948
Guyana 812,000 83,000
Iceland 244,009 39,758
Kuwait 1,77M 6,880
Lesotho 1,63M 11,720
Liechtenstein 32,528 62
Luxembourg 369,500 998
Maldives 189,000 115
Malta 343,334 95
Mauritania 2,01M 398,000
Mauritius 1,04M 797
Monaco 29,972 0.7
Mongolia 1,97M 605,022
Montenegro 730,000 13,812 km²
Oman 1,20M 105,000
Qatar 371,863 4,468
Saint Kitts and Nevis 47,000 104
Saint Lucia 143,600 238
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines 138,000 150
San Marino 27,336 23.5
Sao Tome and Principe 113,000 387
Samoa 163,000 1,093
Seychelles 67,000 175
Singapore 4,300,419 239
Solomon Islands 270,000 10,640
Suriname 370,000 63,992
Swaziland 676,049 6,705
Trinidad and Tobago 1,22M 1,978
United Arab Emirates 1,77M 32,300
Vanuatu 141,400 5,700
TAMIL EELAM (Island of Sri Lanka) 3,598,000** 19,509 km²
* According to the United Nations statistics, there are 60 million Tamils in India (Tamil Nadu) and the Island of Sri Lanka (Tamil Eelam) alone, and Tamils rank the 17th largest linguistic group in the world.
** Census of 1979
5a
Message of H. E Mr. Jacques Chirac,
President of the French Republic
On the occasion of the National Day of Sri Lanka - 04/02/07
QUOTE:
Mr. President, on the occasion of the National Day of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, I convey to you as well as to the Sri Lankan people, my warmest congratulations.
While fighting has resumed between the Army and the LTTE, and numerous civilians are suffering in a very difficult humanitarian situation, allow me to wish that dialogue will start again and that a political solution to the conflict that is tearing Sri Lanka apart will be found.
Sincerely yours,
Signed: Jacques Chirac
UNQUOTE
For more information: Press and information Service
Embassy of France in Sri Lanka and the Maldives
http://www.ambafrance-lk.org/article.php3?id_article=550
UN intervention - the new bug
Hindustan Times, 5 March 2007
Colombo, March 5, 2007 - With the US, EU and the UN complaining about a "climate of impunity" prevailing in Sri Lanka, there is a growing fear in the country that the UN may send a monitoring mission and make its report a basis for imposing economic sanctions.
In a letter to President Mahinda Rajapaksa dated December 13, 2006, the sacked Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera had warned of such a possibility and had gone on to plead for an improvement in the government's human rights record to avert such a mission.
On Sunday, the All Ceylon Tamil Congress (ACTC) leader A Vinayagamoorthy called for a UN peace keeping force to protect the Tamils.
But objecting strongly to any such intervention, the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) leader, Somaswansa Amarasinghe, wrote a letter to the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon last week, telling him that the UN had no mandate to intervene in Sri Lanka as the ethnic conflict in the country "posed no threat to any of its neighbours in particular or world peace in general." (Excerpt - refer to page 64)
UN News Centre
Sri Lanka - several thousands reported fleeing
intensified government - rebel fighting – UN
19 January 2007 – Several thousand more people began fleeing an embattled separatist rebel-held pocket of land on Sri Lankas east coast today towards Government positions as Government forces were reported to be advancing amid intensified fighting, the United Nations refugee agency said.
We call on both parties to the conflict to respect international humanitarian law, including the protection of civilians and their freedom of movement, UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) spokesman Ron Redmond told a news briefing in Geneva, noting that this is the second large-scale exodus from the area in a month.
In late December 2006, over 20,000 civilians previously trapped by fighting between Sri Lankan forces and the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) fled across swollen rivers and jungle paths into government-controlled areas of Batticaloa District to the south of Vaharai.
UNHCR estimates that some 70,000 people have been killed and 465,000 displaced by the more than two decade-long conflict, including nearly 205,000 uprooted since fighting erupted anew in April 2006 despite a ceasefire signed in 2002.
6
Before todays exodus, 9,500 people were estimated to still remain in Vaharai, which had seen months of heavy fighting. Humanitarian access has been limited since last October, with only one humanitarian convoy able to deliver aid in late November.
Our staffs are out in the field trying to verify the numbers fleeing and their exact location, and to start arranging assistance, Mr. Redmond said. UNHCR is very concerned about the safety of any civilians remaining in Vaharai, as well as those in other areas across Sri Lankas conflict-riddled north and east.
Since December, UNHCR and its partners have been working with local authorities to set up emergency sites to host the new arrivals so that schools which were initially sheltering the displaced can re-open in a matter of weeks. In late December, the agency distributed basic household items to over 5,000 families from Vaharai.
We have more stocks to help the latest arrivals, Mr. Redmond noted. Over the last four months, we have distributed over 500,000 basic household items (everything from toothbrushes to mosquito nets to sarongs and saris) to displaced people and host families.
http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=21276&Cr=&Cr1=
UN News Centre
UN calls for the protection of civilians in Sri Lanka
as over 20 killed and dozens maimed
8 January 2007 – Condemning the latest attacks on civilians in strife-torn Sri Lanka, which left more than 20 dead and dozens maimed, the United Nations office on the island today called for their immediate protection and warned of worsening conditions in the east, where thousands of people remain trapped by the fighting between the Government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).
The United Nations condemns the deliberate targeting of civilians and deplores the latest incidents involving two civilian buses which resulted in the deaths of over 20 innocent civilians with dozens maimed and injured, the Office of the Resident and Humanitarian Co-ordinator said.
The United Nations calls for the protection of all civilians throughout the island, the statement added, warning also that the humanitarian situation in the eastern region of Vaharai is grave and demands an urgent response, with the Government estimating that 15,000 people are trapped without food. The last convoy of aid to get through to the area was on 29 November.
We stand ready to assist those still trapped in Vaharai, said Amin Awad, Acting Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator. These persons are the most vulnerable of the vulnerable.
Pointing out that the elderly, sick and disabled are most likely to remain behind, he said, They are still without access to food, emergency medical services, and shelter, and continue to be caught in the middle of relentless fighting.
The UN has already mounted an extensive operation supporting the Government through local authorities and partner agencies to protect and assist with the basic humanitarian needs of over 70,000 individuals across the district of Batticaloa, but it also underscored that both the authorities and the Tamil Tigers must protect civilians.
The United Nations further reminds both parties of their obligations under International Human Rights and Humanitarian Law, as expressed in the Security Council Resolutions on the Protection of Civilians and the Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement, the statement added.
This is the second time in less than a week that the UN has expressed concern at the increasing deaths of civilians in Sri Lanka, following an aerial bombardment on 2 January in which at least 14 people, including children, were killed in the north-west.
Fighting between Government troops and the LTTE has intensified since April last year, despite a ceasefire agreed in 2002 aimed at ending the conflict that has lasted for more than 20 years and claimed almost 70,000 lives.
7
IMF Quits Sri Lanka - may return !
COLOMBO, Feb 14 (IPS) - The International Monetary
Fund (IMF) shut its Colombo office this month saying it no longer had a Sri
Lankan programme, but economists and civil activists say the Fund is still
expected to keep a watch over this war-battered nation.
''I doubt the IMF will stay away for long. Look the
government disbursed just 20 percent of foreign funds each year (from all
donors) but still the IMF chose to remain (despite all the criticism),'' noted
Sarath Fernando, a well-known civil society activist.
Muttukrishna Sarvananthan, an economist and principal
researcher at the Point Pedro Institute of Development, says the IMF will
oversee Sri Lanka from its New Delhi office. "We still owe them
money."
The Fund has been critical of Colombos high budget
deficits that have reached nine percent of gross domestic product (GDP) thanks
to excessive public spending and a bloated public sector. It wants leaner and
meaner administrations, advocates raising tax to collect revenue for state
spending and across-the-board subsidy cuts. This has not found favour with
large sections of the countrys population, many of whom are dependent on
subsidised farming.
In recent months, however, the government has assailed the
IMF saying its stringent conditions for lending were unacceptable.
A few weeks after the IMF in a Christmas eve announcement
said it was closing the Colombo office, Sarath Amunugama, an influential
minister who earlier served as finance
minister, told reporters that Sri Lanka was not running after the World Bank or
the IMF anymore to obtain loans. "There are several countries
willing to help Sri Lanka," he was quoted as saying.
Amunugama, who is minister for enterprise development and
investment promotion, cited the 700 million US
dollars worth of support offered by Iran as aid with no stringent
conditions, soon after the after the Development Forum in January hosted by the
government for Sri Lankas donors.
But economist Sarvananthan argues that the trickle down
effect does not happen overnight. "It takes a long time," he said,
adding that the IMFs presence in Sri Lanka was added comfort to donors and
foreign investors. It provided some security to donors, while investors knew
the IMF provided the important checks and balances in the country.
In its closure announcement, the IMF said the
decision reflected the evolving nature of the IMF's relationship with Sri
Lanka, with the country no longer having a programme with the IMF.
Two days before the surprising announcement, the
Fund, in its last report issued in Colombo, warned Sri Lanka to settle its
long-standing ethnic conflict that has claimed over 65,000 lives since violence
intensified in 1983.
Since 2003, the IMF has lent to Sri Lanka more than 400
million dollars in SDRs (Special Drawing Rights) for poverty reduction
programmes and balance of payment support, but Colombo has drawn less than 60
million, clearly exposing the countrys weak foreign aid disbursement
mechanism.
Nimal Sanderatne, Sri Lankas most eminent economist and a
retired central bank official, believes there was no IMF programme because the
government was unable to meet the conditions. "The
IMF move is a negative signal to investors. A lot of their decisions were based
on IMF-World Bank strategies," he said, adding that the Funds
call for cutting the budget deficit was reasonable as the state was spending
heavily on unproductive segments like defence. (Excerpt)
Donors warn against escalation of Sri Lanka conflict
Mon 29 January 2007 - GALLE, Sri Lanka (AFP) - International donors warned Sri Lanka against escalating its bitter ethnic conflict and demanded a power-sharing deal with Tamil rebels to end ethnic bloodshed and salvage the economy.
Sri Lanka must commit to peace and restore investor confidence if it is to develop its potential, World Bank's vice president for South Asia, Praful Patel, told a meeting of international aid donors here.
"There is no way to politely skirt this issue," Patel said. "As a major development partner to Sri Lanka, the World Bank would be failing if we did not place the conflict front and centre in our deliberations."
8
The United States, a key backer of Norwegian-backed peace efforts, said a military solution to the South Asian island nation's long-running ethnic conflict was not possible.
"We remain unwavering in our conviction that there can be no military solution to this terrible conflict," the US ambassador to Sri Lanka, Robert Blake, said.
"We hope Sri Lanka will seize the opportunity to forge a power-sharing proposal that can form the basis for talks with the LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam) that could finally bring an end to conflict in Sri Lanka."
Japan, Sri Lanka's single largest donor, said a permanent peace deal struck through dialogue was the only way out.
"The nation's future is at stake... (it is) only through dialogue and not violence that the conflict could be resolved," said Reiichiro Takahashi, a deputy director general in Japan's foreign ministry.
International lenders and donors are meeting in this southern Sri Lankan seaside town for two days to examine the island's economy and study if their cash had been well spent.
Sri Lanka plans to convert 1.5 billion dollars in aid pledges received for this year's development work into firm commitments during the two-day meeting, which was opened by President Mahinda Rajapakse.
But the recent surge in violence is undermining the development work undertaken by donors in the embattled northern and eastern parts of the island.
President Rajapakse, who is also the island's finance minister, blamed the LTTE for blocking aid to conflict areas.
"We could have probably organised this forum in Trincomalee (in the island's northeast) if not for the violence and terrorist activities of the LTTE," Rajapakse told the donors before going in for closed-door discussions.
The president said the government was committed to a negotiated peaceful solution to the Tamil separatist conflict, which has claimed more than 60,000 lives since 1972.
However, the government has also said it wants to escalate attacks against the Tamil Tigers by building on recent military gains.
Over the past year, 200,000 new internally displaced people have joined around 300,000 already forced to leave their homes, official figures show.
The tropical island's 25 billion dollar economy is also not performing to its full potential, though the country is forecasting a blistering 8.0 percent growth this year, the biggest in nearly three decades.
There is also a fear that the government's raising of the defence budget by 45 percent to 1.29 billion dollars this year may deter the warring sides from meeting for face-to-face talks in the near future.
And Patel warned that the government must also take measures to stamp out inflation, which hit 19.3 percent in December.
"If inflation continues at the current levels of nearly 20 percent, 2007 will not be a good year for the economy either," Patel said.
Defence costs blast economy
* Each MBRL (Multi-barrel) sortie costs 100 jobs says minister
* Reiterates commitment to political solution to conflict
In an apparent indication that the escalating defence budget is taking a heavy toll on the countrys economy, a senior Minister said yesterday the country was losing almost one hundred jobs with each Multi-barrel rocket fired on the LTTE.
Senior Minister and SLFP General Secretary Maithripala Sirisena insisted that though the government was now focussing on military engagements, it was aware that the final solution should be a political one.
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We may be thrilled to see the spectacle of multi-barrel attacks, but what we dont realize is the price we all have to pay for such attacks, Minister Sirisena said addressing an SLFP gathering in Polonnaruwa.
The Minister stressed that the government embarked on the All Party Conference initiative with the sole intention of reaching a negotiated settlement and said the governments commitment to a negotiated settlement remained unchanged. The government Defence estimates for this stand at Rs. 139.56 billion with fears that it might rise further given the frequency of air bombing and heavy weapon attacks on LTTE positions. Since August there has been a steady rise in the operations using heavy military hardware by both the government and the LTTE.
This years defence budget is a 28% increase over last years and the projection for 2008 is around Rs. 143.46 billion. The government however maintains that such expenses are critical to protect the sovereignty and the territorial integrity of the country. (Daily Mirror – 09/01/2007)
Hardline Sri Lanka monks mobbed us -- Dutch aid group
COLOMBO, Jan 12 (Reuters) - A Dutch Christian aid group that Sri Lanka suspects of helping the Tamil Tigers said on Friday hardline Buddhist monks allied to President Mahinda Rajapakse had mobbed their office and warned them to leave the island.
Monks in saffron robes identifying themselves as members of Jathika Hela Urumaya, the Sinhalese nationalist all-Buddhist monk party (JHU), stormed ZOA Refugee Care's office in a residential quarter of Colombo with dozens of supporters on Thursday, the group said.
"Around 8-10 Buddhist monks from JHU with 70-80 supporters walked into our premises," said ZOA's general affairs manager, Anslem Mudiatta. "They pushed their way through. They took our attendance registers and some keys and photographed everybody."
"They were saying: You are helping the Tigers, you are Christian, you have come to spread Christianity. This is a Buddhist country, you must get out within 24 hours," he added, but said staffs were not manhandled.
Buddhist monk and JHU central committee member Missaka Kamalasiri, who took part in the protest, said aid groups suspected of helping the rebels should be expelled.
"These organisations are not suitable to work in the north and east because their activities are suspicious," he said during another protest on Friday outside the Colombo office of Save the Children, two of whose donated fishing boats were found in a captured Tiger camp.
"They say they don't know how their materials end up with the Tigers, and that is not good enough," he added. "Here is proof they are helping them."
Sri Lankan defence spokesman Keheliya Rambukwella said on Thursday the government was investigating a number of foreign and local aid groups it suspected might be helping the Tigers.
He said the government might banish ZOA from the island after the military said this week it had found equipment belonging to the Netherlands-based group at a rebel base it had overrun in the eastern district of Ampara.
ZOA, whose projects focus on helping refugees in the restive east, deny helping the rebels. The group said that any recovered equipment with their logo must have been stolen from an office abandoned due to renewed fighting.
"It is outrageous to accuse them without providing at the same moment substantial evidence," said a European diplomat on condition of anonymity. "Rambukwella's comments are only fuelling extremist elements and makes the government responsible for hampering the much-needed work of humanitarian organisations."
"By accusing ZOA, they are directly involving the government of the Netherlands and the European Union, because they fund it -- and that is very serious."
Some aid workers fear the government is mounting a witch-hunt against aid groups to appease hardline nationalists -- namely the JHU and the Marxist party JVP -- who blame the international community for the ravages of the island's ethnic conflict.
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HR violations galore in 2006
The Morning Leader – 10 January 2007
The Human Rights Commission (HRC) has recorded a large number of complaints during the year 2006.
A spokesperson for the HRC speaking to The Morning Leader said that the complaints recorded for last year alone amounted to 7,617 and that these cases related to prevailing human rights violations in Sri Lanka.
She further added that all these cases have been registered with the HRC which hopes to take up the issues with the relevant authorities soon. She added that investigations are underway in some cases and that they would be scrutinised and categorised accordingly.
These cases are categorised into complaints relating to illegal arrests, torture and disappearances. She said that it would take some time for all recorded cases to be taken up.
In a statement it was said that the HRC had received 105 complaints on disappearances and 311 on harassment and these complaints were recorded on December 19, 2006.
Further, complaints of illegal arrests stood at over 400 and issues against imposition of law were over 350.
Batticaloa attack - Security negligence?
Daily Mirror – 2 March 2007 - The LTTE mortar attack which injured diplomats and a group of security personnel as helicopters carrying them landed at the Webber stadium in Batticaloa on Tuesday, could have been avoided, if not for security negligence, as there had been shelling in the vicinity earlier that morning, a defence source told the Daily Mirror.
Despite the military publicly stating that the only attack to take place in the vicinity was on the previous night, the Daily Mirror has learnt that the LTTE had launched a mortar attack on the Air Force camp located two kilometres away from the Webber stadium, minutes prior to the helicopter landings.
When contacted by the Daily Mirror STF Commandant Nimal Lewke confirmed there was an attack on the Air Force camp minutes before the helicopters with the diplomats landed at the Webber stadium which is under the control of the STF.
Defence sources said as a result of the morning LTTE attack and the subsequent retaliation from an area within the Webber stadium, the relevant authorities should have redirected the helicopters as there was an imminent security threat to the area.
The shelling took place between 7.30 and 8.15 that morning and the helicopters were scheduled to land at around 8.40 a.m. So there was definitely a security threat and the helicopters should have been re-directed to a safer location without going ahead with the scheduled landing, the source said.
When asked by the Daily Mirror if he was aware of any security threat just prior to the landing, Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe responded in the negative adding that he was not informed of any attack even after his helicopter touched down.
Mr. Samarasinghe was among the delegates who had a narrow shave as a result of the attack which the Government believed was a deliberate attack on the dignitaries who were on a humanitarian mission to Batticaloa. However Media Centre for National Security (MCNS) Director Lakshman Hullugalle told the Daily Mirror there were no reports of any clash between the LTTE and the security forces in the vicinity that morning and as such there was no security threat until the moment the delegates came under attack. (Daily Mirror – 2 March 2007)
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Diplomats escapes from artillery fire
The LTTE apologized for the incident
India eNews 27 February 2007 - US ambassador to Sri Lanka Robert Blake Tuesday narrowly escaped a Tamil Tiger attack when the military tried to show Western diplomats a part of the island's east captured from the rebels. Indian diplomats were invited to the tour but they politely declined.
Italian ambassador Pio Mariani suffered head injuries when the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) slammed artillery shells into the Batticaloa military airstrip after one of the two helicopters landed and some of the diplomats along with Sri Lankan officials started to walk.
Ambassadors Blake and Juergen Weerth of Germany also reportedly suffered injuries, the former on the shoulder, but there was no official confirmation of this. The Italian envoy was warded in the main hospital at Batticaloa, some 300 km east of Colombo, for around two hours and discharged.
India's envoy to Colombo, Alok Prasad, was also reportedly invited to join the group of diplomats that was to be shown the area of Vaharai, which the military captured from the Tigers in January. But Indian diplomats, who normally do not join group tours of this sort, preferred to opt out.
The LTTE later apologized for the incident, blaming Sri Lankan authorities for having ferried the diplomats to a war zone without informing it in advance.
Only on Friday, Blake, who moved into Sri Lanka in September 2006 after serving as the number two in the US embassy in New Delhi, told IANS in a telephonic interview that his country 'respectfully disagreed' with those in Sri Lanka who thought a military approach would end the separatist conflict.
'We had only the Italian ambassador coming here,' a Batticaloa hospital spokesman told IANS on telephone. 'We have no idea if other ambassadors too were injured. They may have been but they did come to the hospital.'
A spokesman for the US embassy in Colombo told IANS: '(Blake) called the embassy and said he was all right.' Military officials said four shells hit the area where the first helicopter landed and a second helicopter did not touch down there. A fixed-wing aircraft parked at the nearby military airfield was damaged.
The LTTE admitted firing the artillery but said it had no advance information about the aircraft that it added landed in the Batticaloa military airstrip and inside the military head office premises around 9.30 a.m.
LTTE military spokesman S. Ilanthirayan expressed 'shock and sadness that the government exposed senior diplomats to danger by allowing aircraft carrying them into an area where they have declared military operations without informing LTTE in advance'.
According to a statement by LTTE, he called it 'criminal negligence on the part of the Sri Lankan government. Simple diplomacy could have avoided the unfortunate incident'.
The statement quoted UN official Marian Din Kajdomcaj as saying that the LTTE stopped the shelling immediately after it was alerted about the occupants of the helicopters, which could then take off safely. 'Kajdomcaj thanked LTTE for the prompt action and acknowledged their failure to warn LTTE about the flight.'
Other countries whose diplomats were in the Tuesday tour included those of Canada and France, besides the European Union.
Earlier, Human Rights Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe, who was accompanying the diplomats, told AFP that the attack took place shortly after one of two helicopters landed at a public playground.
'The ambassadors are slightly hurt,' Samarasinghe said earlier. 'I was not injured. A shell fell a short distance away from where we were.'
The Italian ambassador was put under intensive care. 'The diplomat has a foreign object embedded inside his head,' hospital director Muruganathan Moorthy said. 'We had a total of 11 people admitted after the attack.'
Four policemen, three Special Task Force commandos, two air force men and a child were among the wounded.
The diplomats were to join discussions with Batticaloa officials about the situation in the area in the wake of the recent military successes against the LTTE, which has suffered a string of reverses since last year.
(http://www.indiaenews.com/srilanka/20070227/41242.htm)
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Ministry of Foreign Affairs - Italy
Communications - 27 February 2007
Deputy Premier and Minister for Foreign Affairs Massimo D'Alema has expressed his relief at the news that Italian Ambassador in Colombo Pio Mariani, involved along with other colleagues in an armed assault while visiting Batticaloa in Sri Lanka, was wounded only slightly, and will be able to make a quick return to Colombo.
In expressing his complete solidarity and hopes in the timely return to Sri Lanka of our diplomatic representative, to whom he has addressed a personal letter, Minister D'Alema also expressed the hope that light will soon be shed on all the circumstances surrounding this worrying incident.
Minister D'Alema took this opportunity to reiterate his appreciation for the Italian diplomats serving their country in difficult areas characterised by situations of tension, conveying Italy's special gratitude to those among them working courageously and dutifully in particularly high risk contexts.
(http://www.esteri.it/eng/6_38_90_01.asp?id=2911&mod=1&min=0)
Dominant problems highlighted
An anti-war rally disrupted by a band of assailants
The role played by a Deputy minister is most disgusting
Daily Mirror – 11/01/2007 - Two ugly and violent incidents at two places in Colombo on Tuesday drew special attention to the two dominant issues of the day, the ethnic problem and the economic problem. The incident at Nugegoda brought to the fore the continuing conflict between those advocating war as a method of eliminating terrorism and those insisting on a political framework as a solution to problems. The other incident drew attention to the economic problems, which is causing much concern to all sections of people in this country.
The Nugegoda incident where an anti-war rally organized by the United Peoples Movement was disrupted by a band of assailants, demonstrated the extent to which the tolerant and democratic nature of our society has deteriorated. Practice of democracy which, we believe, the government still remains committed, demands that the right to freedom of expression and association should be guaranteed and protected. Whether a person or a group agrees with a particular idea or campaign, or not, they have no right to interfere with those promoting or sponsoring such ideas or campaigns.
There is scarcely anything more repugnant than the use of force and coercion by anyone to disrupt any campaign that one opposes. The democratic way to show dissent and convince others of the unacceptability of an idea or a proposition is persuasion. If those anti-war campaigners have ulterior motives or any intention to disrupt the national agenda lending support for the LTTE, then they have every right to expose them through democratic means.
What is most disgusting in this incident is the role played by a deputy minister. It is all the more contemptible in view of the alleged approval or connivance of the government in this attack. It is indeed President Mahinda Rajapaksas duty to order an investigation into this sordid attack on democracy, to clear his government of complicity and to reaffirm his commitment to the ideals of democracy and human rights.
Deputy Minister Mervyn Silva has very innocently stated that he had only visited the place. And he says that there had been some persons at the place intent on disrupting the meeting - arranged by the organizers themselves, he presumes - to disrupt the meeting and create trouble. But his castigation of the organisers and eyewitness accounts of those present and victims of the attack, among whom were some journalists, prove that his role has been far from being one of passive and innocent observer as he had attempted to portray. (Excerpt - Daily Mirror – 11/01/2007)
Deputy minister was leading the gang !
SIRITUNGA JAYSURIYA from Colombo, Sri Lanka, is convenor of the newly formed United People's Movement and secretary of the United Socialist Party (CWI, Sri Lanka). He is also the chair of the Civil Monitoring Committee, set up to investigate and campaign against the abductions and killings of Tamil-speaking people in Sri Lanka.
Angelika Teweleit interviewed him during the recent World Congress of the Committee
for a Workers' International (CWI).
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AT - Siri, the press has carried reports of a violent attack by armed thugs against you and other organisers at a public rally in Colombo. You narrowly escaped with your life. What happened?
Siri - This was going to be the first public meeting organised by the United People's Movement, which is an alliance of all political forces and parties who are against the war, against the government's repressive laws and against hunger. This was our first mass mobilisation since the present government came to power.
We had got a big response to our posters and expected up to 10,000 people at the rally. The day before we were told by the area police administration not to hold the meeting because they could not provide security. I said we would take all necessary measures and that this was a perfectly legal meeting.
90 minutes before the meeting started, when most of the helpers and organisers were having lunch nearby, I was with a few others near the stage. Then there was a noise and we saw more than 100 people storming onto the stage. They started to smash the speaker system and all the equipment. I went to see what was happening.
There was Mervyn de Silva, a deputy minister, and he was leading the gang. I was starting to ask him what they were doing there and a group of his crowd started to shout "That's him!" and chase me. I managed to escape by running through the car park and into a nearby supermarket. I entered it and the gangsters started to smash windows and follow me.
I got into another shop and that way I was able to escape and save my life. Then I saw through the windows that they were burning all the equipment put out for the rally.
After a while, with the help of a local three-wheeler (rickshaw) driver, I managed to get out of the area.
AT - You said a deputy minister was leading the gang - why do you think someone close to the government was leading this charge?
Siri - The deputy minister at a press conference on the day of the attack denied he was even there, while the government is saying the raid he led was aimed at helping the organisers because we did not want the meeting to take place!
The government has been worried about us ever since the new president was inaugurated at the end of 2005. At that time, when I had been the candidate of the USP and had come in third, we warned president Rajapakse that if he continued along the road of chauvinism and war, we would organise mass resistance.
I do not think this attack is an isolated matter. I think the government planned to attack this meeting because of our efforts in organising the movement against repression and hunger.
AT - What is the situation for the Tamil community in Sri Lanka?
Siri - The situation in the North, where they are a majority, is terrible. There is huge poverty, prices are five times higher than normal prices and there is hunger. Especially for the children and elderly the situation is dire. There is no medicine.
The government has closed the main A9 road to the North. This means that the main route to the Jaffna Peninsula, along which all goods and supplies were transported, is cut off. We are campaigning for the re-opening of the road and also for emergency supplies to meet the basic human needs. Even schools and hospitals are not functioning.
AT - What can people in Europe concretely do to support your struggle?
Siri - I think the European working class can play an important role to stop this genocidal war and the repressive measures of the Sri Lankan government.
My name is on a death list issued by communal forces together with 21 other names. It is a very serious situation. Support is needed by people sending protest letters to the government to stop this and to conduct a campaign to make public the attacks on democratic rights and the death threats being made.
In the end, there is no other way of dealing with all these problems except by mobilising working class struggle to fight for socialism worldwide. (Excerpt)
(http://www.socialistparty.org.uk/2007/471/index.html?id=pp76.htm)
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Abductions and Disappearances
Sri Lanka faces international isolation
Ex-minister (sacked) of Foreign Affairs
COLOMBO 15 February 2007 (AFP) - Sri Lanka faces international isolation for failing to pay close heed to human rights issues, former foreign minister Mangala Samaraweera warned.
He said he was troubled by the renewed violence and a rising number of deaths, as well as a big increase in unsolved kidnappings across the island.
"There is growing concern among (the) international community over allegations of abductions, disappearances and extra-judicial killings," Samaraweera told reporters on Thursday.
"We have to allow international investigators to come here, otherwise we risk international isolation."
By ignoring outside pressure, Samaraweera said the government was strengthening the hand of the Tamil Tiger rebels, who have been fighting for an independent homeland since 1972.
"The LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam) are trying to project Sri Lanka as a violator of human rights. They want to bring a UN fact-finding mission to Sri Lanka to investigate," he said.
The ex-minister was a key ally of President Mahinda Rajapakse during the 2005 November presidential election campaign.
But the pair fell out over ideological differences and Samaraweera has criticised the president for giving his unelected brothers a big voice in policy-making.
Rajapakse stripped Samaraweera and two others of their ministerial posts last week (9 February 2007). The former foreign minister said his life was now under threat as the president had withdrawn his security detail.
Former junior ports minister Sripathi Sooriyarachchi, who was also kicked out, said he and Samaraweera would not accept future cabinet posts under Rajapakse's administration.
They have written a 19-page letter to the president setting out 10 demands, including cutting the cabinet from an unprecedented 51 members to 35 and pushing for a political settlement to end the ethnic conflict.
They opposed Rajapakse's move to accommodate 18 opposition legislators within government ranks late last month and reward 10 of the defectors with plum cabinet posts.
The defections gave Rajapakse a majority in the 225-member parliament and secured the survival of his government.
"A part of the govt. is involved in abductions"
Morning Leader - October 4, 2006
Western Province People's Front Leader Mano Ganesan said that the government was yet to prove its sincerity on the abductions of Tamil businessmen in Colombo. In an interview with The Morning Leader he said the Civil Monitoring Committee would not work with the government or with the Tamil parties who are with them. "We believe that a part of the government is involved in these abductions. There is no question about it. We are not accusing the government in total," he said.
Q: The UPF says that it would work with the government to look into the abductions. Why are you not working with the government?
A: The government is yet to prove its sincerity on this issue. The abductions have been going on for three to four months and some of the abducted persons are taken to places as far as 100 to 200 kilometres away from Colombo and then released. How on earth are they passing all the checkpoints without being caught? We believe that a part of the government is involved in these abductions. There is no question about it. We are not accusing the government totally. So therefore, we are not willing to work with the government. (Excerpt)
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Sri Lankan police, troops involved in abductions - Police chief
March 6, 2007, COLOMBO (AFP) - Sri Lanka's police chief said police and security personnel have been involved in ransom kidnappings of civilians, vowing to crack down on mounting abductions and killings.
Police Inspector General Victor Perera said Tuesday that a "large number" of police officers and troops had been arrested on charges of abduction and extortion. In some instances ransoms had been paid abroad.
His remarks came as five bullet-riddled bodies of unidentified men turned up in the north central district of Anuradhapura following a similar discovery of five bodies near the capital last Saturday.
Perera offered "unlimited money" as a reward for information leading to the arrest of those involved in kidnappings.
He said among 433 people arrested since September over the abductions, a large number were either policemen, soldiers or deserters from the police and armed forces, but he gave no breakdown.
"There is a lot of attention by foreign organisations on the human rights situation here and these killings and abductions cause big problems for the government internationally," Perera said.
International human rights organisations have said rights abuses have increased amid the escalating conflict between troops and separatist Tamil Tiger guerrillas.
More than 4,000 people have been killed since December 2005 despite a truce struck five years ago.
"Sri Lanka has the highest levels of unresolved
disappearances in the world."
August 31, 2006 - UNITED NATIONS - Marking the International Day of the Disappeared, United Nations officials joined international human rights groups Wednesday to draw attention to the plight of the thousands of people around the world who have been seized and imprisoned without recourse to their families or lawyers.
"Sri Lanka has one of the highest levels of unresolved forced disappearances in the world."
(Excerpt - http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0831-03.htm)
by Simon Gardner
COLOMBO (Reuters) 5 March 2007 - Like the relatives of hundreds of Sri Lankans who have 'disappeared' or been abducted amid renewed civil war, 27-year-old Dushyanthi Malaravan dreams of the day her missing father will come home.
Professor S. Raveendranath was serving as Vice Chancellor of the island's Eastern University in the restive eastern district of Batticaloa when he disappeared from a science fair in a heavily guarded district of the capital Colombo in mid-December.
"Every day he came home for lunch. That day he didn't arrive. By late afternoon, I knew something had happened because he had been getting threats (demanding he resign)," Malaravan said, her mother weeping beside her.
"We don't want to point at anyone, because we are afraid for his safety as well as for ours," the housewife said in the apartment where her father lived before his disappearance.
Colleagues and rights officials say 56-year-old Raveendranath, a Tamil from the northern Jaffna peninsula, had been receiving threats from a breakaway rebel faction called the Karuna group, which split from the Tigers in 2004.
A United Nations envoy says elements of the military have been helping Karuna members to abduct children as fighters. Nordic truce monitors see troop involvement in Karuna attacks, and analysts say the government is fostering the former rebels.
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Sri Lanka's Human Rights Commission says nearly 100 abductions and disappearances have been reported to them so far this year in Colombo, Batticaloa and the besieged Jaffna peninsula, which is guarded by more than 40,000 troops.
That in turn comes on top of 1,000 cases reported during 2006 as the island's two-decade civil war resumed, 56 abductions of which were blamed on the Tigers, 71 on their former comrades the Karuna group and 184 of which were listed as unknown.
Other groups say the numbers are really far higher and do not include those taken inside rebel territory.
SAFER IN JAIL?
In the northern Jaffna peninsula, cut off from the rest of the island by a 'border' that separates rebel and state territory, rights lawyers and officials say dozens of people have asked to be held in jail for fear of abduction or murder.
Foreign aid workers say child recruitment and abductions in the east is rife by both the Tigers and Karuna faction, which is being touted as a viable force to run the island's east.
UN envoy Allan Rock says he has credible evidence that elements within the security forces have helped to abduct children as soldiers for the Karuna faction -- which now has political offices in Batticaloa on streets patrolled by troops.
The government dismisses his allegation out of hand.
Experts say history shows very few of Sri Lanka's disappeared have resurfaced, while killings continue to mushroom. The conflict has killed around 68,000 people since 1983 -- around 4,000 of whom in the past 15 months.
Professor Raveendranath is still missing, despite the fact he has now been replaced as Vice Chancellor. But his family is clinging to hopes of a safe return.
"We are confident he will come back," Malaravan said, her toddler propped on her knee. "We must stay positive."
"We ask the people -- do not harm him," she implored. "Please release him as soon as they can, because he's not a trouble-maker. He is very soft and gentle." (Excerpt)
Vice-Chancellor of Eastern University
abducted in Colombo, Sri Lanka
Vice Chancellor reported missing in the capital Colombo
15 December 2007
– The Vice Chancellor of the Eastern University of
Sri Lanka -EUSL, Professor Sivasubramanium Raveendranath (55), was reported
missing in the afternoon.
Prof Raveendranath was forced to resign his post following threats from paramilitary Karuna Group, which works closely with the Sri Lankan military intelligence. The Dean of the Arts faculty at the EUSL, Dr. Bala Sugumar, had been abducted earlier. His abductors had demanded the resignation of Vice Chancellor Raveendranath.
Mr. Raveendranath, was on his way to attend a meeting of the Sri Lanka Association for the Advancement of Science (SLAAS) at Vidya Mawatta near Bauddhaloka mawatta where he was last seen by his driver at 12:30 pm. This area is within the High Security Zone. He is believed to have been abducted by a paramilitary group known as Karuna group.
Global appeal for release of Vice
Chancellor Raveendranath
Sixty seven academics, colleagues, and partners of Eastern University, across country borders, Tuesday jointly urged for the safe release of Professor S. Raveendranath, the Vice Chancellor of the Eastern University, who was reported missing Friday in Colombo's High Security area. In September, an unidentified armed group kidnapped the Dean of the Faculty of Arts at Eastern University, demanding Professor Ravindranath's resignation in return for the Dean's release.
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The joint appeal said: "Professor Ravindranath has played a central part in the work of the University from its foundation in 1981, and his tenure as Vice-Chancellor has coincided with major developments like the opening of the first medical school in the East of Sri Lanka."
Full text of the appeal follows :
Statement of Concern regarding missing
Vice-Chancellor of Eastern University, Sri Lanka
We wish to express our deep concern about the apparent abduction of Professor S. Ravindranath, Vice-Chancellor of Eastern University in Sri Lanka. On Friday 15th December, he left a meeting of the Sri Lanka Association for the Advancement of Science in central Colombo, and has not been seen since. His family has reported his disappearance to the police.
In September an unidentified armed group kidnapped the Dean of the Faculty of Arts at Eastern University, demanding Professor Ravindranath's resignation in return for the Dean's release. The Vice-Chancellor has not been able to return to the University since that incident and had been carrying out his duties from Colombo.
Our colleagues in Universities across Sri Lanka have struggled heroically in the face of war and natural disaster in recent years. Eastern University is located in one of the areas most devastated by the civil war and by the Tsunami of 2004.
That it is still capable of producing World-class researchers is testimony to the quality and dedication of its academic staff. Professor Ravindranath has played a central part in the work of the University from its foundation in 1981, and his tenure as Vice-Chancellor has coincided with major developments like the opening of the first Medical school in the East of Sri Lanka.
As colleagues, friends, and, in some cases, academic partners of Eastern University we urgently appeal for the swift and safe release of Professor Ravindranath, and for the protection and safety of all our colleagues in Sri Lanka.
1. Dr. Michael Woost, Associate Professor of Anthropology, Hartwick College,USA
2. Prof. Thongchai Winichakul, Professor of History, University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA
3. Dr. David Washbrook, St Antony's College, University of Oxford, UK
4. Dr. Nicholas Van Hear, Senior Researcher, The Centre on Migration, Policy and Society, University of Oxford, UK
5. Dr. Terrance J. Taylor, Research Associate, Department of Criminology & Criminal Justice, University of Missouri-St. Louis, USA
6. Prof. Donald K. Swearer, Director, Center for the Study of World Religions, Harvard University, USA
7. Dr. Alison Strang, Institute for International Health and Development, Queen Margaret University College, Edinburgh, UK
8. Prof. Kristian Stokke, University of Oslo, Norway
9. Associate Prof. Birgitte Refslund Srensen, University of Copenhagen, Denmark
10. Prof. Jonathan Spencer, Professor of the Anthropology of South Asia, School of Social and Political Studies, University of Edinburgh
11. Associate Prof. Hans Skotte, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Norway
12. Dr. Bob Simpson, Deputy Dean, Faculty of Social Science and Health, University of Durham, UK
13. Professor John Sidel, Sir Patrick Gillam Professor of Inter. and Comparative Politics, LSE and Political Science, UK
14. Prof. N. Shanmugaratnam, Norwegian University of Life Sciences (UMB), Norway
15. Prof. Saskia Sassen, University of Chicago, USA and Centennial Visiting Professor, LSE and Political Science, UK
16. Prof. S W R de A Samarasinghe, Tulane University, USA & Executive Director, ICES, Sri Lanka
17. Dr. John D. Rogers, Bibliography of Asian Studies, USA
18. Dr. Susan A. Reed, Director, Center for the Study of Race, Ethnicity, and Gender and Assistant Professor, Women's and Gender Studies and Anthropology, Bucknell University, USA
19. Prof. Velcheru Narayana Rao, Krishnadevaraya Prof. of Languages and Cultures of Asia, University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA
20. Dr Caroline Paskell, London, UK
21. Prof. Jonathan P. Parry, Professor of Anthropology, London School of Economics and Political Science, UK
22. Dr. Camilla Orjuela, Gteborg University, Sweden
23. Dr. Ranjini Obeyesekere, Lecturer Emerita, Department of Anthropology, Princeton University, USA
24. Prof. Gananath Obeyesekere, Professor Emeritus, Department of Anthropology, Princeton University, USA
25. Prof. Hisashi Nakamura, Department of Economy, Ryukoku University, Japan
26. Dr. Martha Mundy, Reader in Anthropology, London School of Economics and Political Science, UK
27. Elizabeth Monson, Department of Languages and Cultures of Asia, University of Wisconsin- Madison, USA
28. Dr. Jody Miller, Associate Professor, Criminology & Criminal Justice, University of Missouri-St. Louis, USA
29. Prof. Eric Meyer, Vice-President, National Institute of Oriental Languages and Civilisations, University of Paris, France
30. Prof. Barbara McPake, Director, Institute for Intern. Health and Development, Queen Margaret University College, Edinburgh, UK
31. Prof. Susan McGrath, Director, Centre for Refugee Studies, York University, Canada
32. Dr. Caitrin Lynch, Assistant Professor of Humanities and Social Sciences, Olin College of Engineering, USA
33. Prof. Ragnhild Lund, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Norway
34. Dr. Wasantha A. Liyanage, Lecturer in Sinhala Language, Department of Asian Studies, Cornell University, USA
18
35. Prof. Jonathan Lewis, Institute for the Study of Global Issues, Hitotsubashi University, Japan
36. Assistant Prof. Benedikt Korf, Department of Geography, University of Zurich, Switzerland
37. Dr. Steven Kemper, Asian Studies, Bates College, USA
38. Dr. Alf Morten Jerve, Assistant Director, Chr. Michelsen Institute, Norway
39. Dr. Tariq Jazeel, Department of Geography, University of Sheffield, UK
40. Associate Prof. Jennifer Hyndman, Department of Geography, Simon Fraser University, Canada
41. Dr. Kristine Hoglund, Uppsala University, Sweden
42. Prof. Ruth Haug, Norwegian University of Life Sciences (UMB), Norway
43. Prof. John Harriss, Professor of International Studies, Simon Fraser University, Canada
44. Prof. Olivia Harris, Professor of Social Anthropology, London School of Economics and Political Science, UK
45. Associate Prof. Charles Hallisey, Department of Languages and Cultures of Asia, University of Wisconsin Madison, USA
46. Prof. Janet Gyatso, Hershey Professor of Buddhist Studies, Harvard University, USA
47. Dr. Arjun Guneratne, Associate Professor of Anthropology, Macalester College, U.S.A
48. Prof. Anthony Good, Head of School, School of Social & Political Studies, University of Edinburgh, UK
49. Prof. Wenona Giles, Atkinson College, York University, Canada.
50. Prof. James W. Gair, Emeritus Professor of Linguistics, Cornell University
51. Prof. ivind Fuglerud, University of Oslo, Norway
52. Amani El-Jack, School of Women's Studies, York University, Canada
53. Shukria Dini, School of Women's Studies, York University, Canada.
54. Prof. C. R. De Silva, Dean, College of Arts and Letters, Old Dominion University, USA
55. Assistant Prof. Donald Davis, Department of Languages & Cultures of Asia, University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA
56. Christina P. Davis, Anthropology Department, University of Michigan, USA
57. Dr. Michael Cullinane, Associate Director, Center for Southeast Asian Studies, University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA
58. Prof. A.P. Cohen, FRSE, Principal & Vice-Patron, Queen Margaret University College, Edinburgh, UK
59. Assistant Prof. Bambi L. Chapin, Department of Anthropology and Sociology, University of Maryland, USA
60. Prof. Ian Bryceson, Norwegian University of Life Sciences (UMB), Norway
61. Associate Prof. Cathrine Brun, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Norway
62. Dr. Robert Boyce, Department of International History, London School of Economics & Political Science, UK
63. Dr. Anne M. Blackburn, Associate Professor of South Asia & Buddhist Studies, Cornell University, USA
64. Dr. Zoltn Biedermann, Postdoctoral Fellow, University of California, Los Angeles, USA
65. Assistant Prof. Bernard Bate, Department of Anthropology, Yale University, USA
66. Dr. Daniel Bass, Adjunct Professor, Religious Studies & Fellow of The Honors College, Florida International, University, USA
67. Prof. Yoshiko Ashiwa, Institute for the Study of Global Issues, Hitotsubashi University, Japan.
Amnesty Appeal on VC Raveendranath
20 December 2006 - UA 336/06
''Disappearance''/fear of torture or ill-treatment/health concern
Professor
Sivasubramanium Raveendranath (m), aged 55,
Vice-Chancellor, Eastern University, Batticaloa
Professor
Sivasubramanium Raveendranath, the Vice-Chancellor of Eastern University, was
reportedly abducted while at a conference in the capital, Colombo, on 15
December. Since he was in an area tightly controlled by the military, it seems
likely that his captors are an armed group operating with the tacit support of
the security forces. He is at risk of torture. He suffers from heart disease,
putting his life in greater danger.
Sivasubramanium Raveendranath had been attending a conference of the Sri Lankan Association for the Advancement of Science and was reportedly last seen by colleagues during the tea break between sessions.
On 20 September, gunmen abducted his colleague, the Dean of the Arts Faculty of the Eastern University, Dr Bala Sugamar.
It is widely reported that the kidnappers had demanded the immediate resignation of Sivasubramanium Raveendranath in return for Dr Bala Sugamar's release.
Sivasubramanium Raveendranath handed in his resignation and Dr Bala Sugamar was released soon after. The University did not accept his resignation, on the grounds that it was a presidential appointment, but he had not yet felt it was safe enough for him to return to the university, and had been carrying out his duties from Colombo. His family have said that Sivasubramanium Raveendranath had received several threats, though it is not clear from whom.
19
According to the head of a local NGO, Eastern University has a reputation for
violent internal politics, mostly about control of the university. Many faculty
members have resigned, gone missing or have been killed in the past. Some
people within the university have claimed that Professor Raveendranath is a
supporter of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), but his family
maintain that he is entirely apolitical.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION
The human rights situation in Sri Lanka has deteriorated dramatically in recent
months. Fighting between the security forces and the LTTE has increased since
April, and this has led to scores of civilians being killed or injured, and
forced more than 200,000 people to flee their homes. Neither the security
forces nor the LTTE appear to be taking adequate precautions to ensure that
civilian are not killed or injured by military actions. Despite the escalating
violence, both sides maintain that they are committed to a 2002 ceasefire
agreement. Over two decades of conflict in Sri Lanka have claimed the lives of
more than 65,000 people, the majority of them civilians.
In recent months in areas in the northeast of Sri Lanka, there have been reports of a number of people ''disappearing'' or being abducted by the security forces or armed groups. Such people are often called or taken in ''for questioning'' and held incommunicado. No receipts or records of their detention are made available, and the official mechanisms for reporting such events, such as through the National Human Rights Commission, are often unable to find where the missing people are. Anyone held this way is in clear danger of torture or ill treatment. (Excerpt)
Sri Lanka's abduction industry has top academic in its grip
By M.R. Narayan Swamy
New Delhi, 18 January 2007 - The distraught family of Sri Lanka's most high profile kidnap victim is begging the authorities to accept his resignation as vice-chancellor of a university, the key demand of abductors who seized him from under the very nose of the government over a month ago.
In a case that has raised international stink, S. Raveendranath, 55, who has
headed the Eastern University of Sri Lanka for around three years,
sensationally disappeared Dec 15 from near a conference hall in a supposedly
high security area of Colombo.
Since then, the Tamil man's wife has almost stopped eating and spends her days
and nights in agony on bed, their son-in-law and trainee eye surgeon Muthusamy
Malaravan, 36, told IANS over telephone from their Colombo home. "She is
crying all the time. The family members are in severe mental trauma."
Adding to the worry is Raveendranath's feeble health. He is a diabetic and
suffers from hypertension, both of which necessitate regulate doses of
medicines. Any slip up can lead to a stroke that can prove fatal.
Malaravan, who has stopped doing surgeries because of the tension he is in, has
one humble request to the University Grants Commission (UGC): Please accept my
father-in-law's resignation as vice-chancellor so that the kidnappers let him
go.
The abductors, widely believed to be the breakaway Tamil Tigers faction
headed by Karuna, apparently want Raveendranath, who is from the north of the
island, out of the university near the eastern town of Batticaloa, in a zone
they consider as their own.
The UGC has different ideas. It thinks that if it were to give into the demand
of the abductors, its "prestige" will be hit. That
"prestige" is prolonging the agony of an already distressed family -
the missing man's wife, two daughters and son-in-law.
In a violence-torn country where kidnappings of Tamils, the rich as well as the not so rich, have become routine, Raveendranath has still attracted a lot of attention in Sri Lanka and abroad as one who joined the Eastern University in 1981 as an assistant lecturer and rose to become the acting vice-chancellor in 2004 before assuming full charge in 2005.
And it was in 2004 that Karuna, the once famed regional commander of the Liberation Tigers of Tami Eelam (LTTE), broke away with his supporters. He has since been locked in a bloody turf war with the dominant LTTE for control of Sri Lanka's multi-ethnic east, apparently with Colombo's backing.
20
"It is more than one month and nobody is telling us where my father-in-law
is," said Malaravan. "We have no single clue, nothing. They (police)
are blank. Police do meet us, but that is all. And worse, there is no eyewitness
to what really happened that day.
"UGC has my father-in-law's resignation. They only need to make it public.
We are requesting them to do it. We are ready to give 100 percent firm
assurance that my father-in-law will have nothing to do with the university
once he is freed. We will not file any case. We pray to god every day."
The family has knocked on every single door in Colombo: President Mahinda
Rajapakse, military officials, foreign embassies, Sri Lankan and global NGOs,
the media and also the Colombo-based office of the Karuna group, which is
laying the blame for the kidnapping on LTTE.
Raveendranath's problems came in the open when armed men abducted the dean of
the arts faculty in September 2005 demanding the vice-chancellor's resignation.
On Oct 2, he sent his resignation to UGC, and soon the dean was released.
According to the family, the UGC asked him to work in Colombo. He complied. So
he remained the vice-chancellor.
On two later occasions, Raveendranath received telephonic threats: "You are
still working. You are not obeying us. You will be in danger." He reported
the calls to UGC but his resignation was still not accepted. On Dec 15 he
disappeared, becoming the most high profile of Tamils who have gone missing in
Sri Lanka in recent times.
Malaravan details all that his father-in-law has done for the Eastern University and the linkages he has forged with universities around the world including India. The efforts are visible from the support generated for him in Western academic circles, including the US, Britain, France, Denmark, France, Sweden, Canada and Japan. But he remains missing.
Does the family have hope? "We are still positive but worried," says
Malaravan. "UGC must accept his resignation. If everyone works together, I
think he can be released. He is a neutral man. Even if there is one phone call
saying he is well, we shall be happy. Even that is not there."
http://www.newkerala.com/news4.php?action=fullnews&id=81446
No breakthrough in Ravindranaths abduction
The Morning Leader – 10 January 2007
Investigations into the abduction of Vice Chancellor, Eastern University Prof. S. Ravindranath are still continuing, DIG Rohan Abeywardena said. He said the CID was carrying out the investigations and that no clues had been found so far as to his whereabouts.
"The investigations are now being carried out by the CID. We have not received any clues or leads as to his whereabouts," DIG Abeywardena told The Morning Leader. He said the Vice Chancellor was living in Colombo for two and a half months when he was abducted last month. Prof. Ravindranath was abducted by unidentified persons on December 15 after attending a function at the BMICH.
Several intellectuals around the world have called for the immediate release of the Vice Chancellor.
In a statement issued by them last month, they said the Eastern University was affected by both the ethnic conflict and the tsunami and yet managed to produce world-class researchers.
The Civil Monitoring Committee (CMC), which looks into the abductions of civilians, expressed its dissatisfaction over the investigations conducted so far. Leader, Western Peoples Front, Mano Ganesan said the committee was in touch with the Vice Chancellors family from the time he was abducted.
"The police have still not come out with anything on this case. It has been nearly one month since he was abducted. We are keeping in touch with the family members of the abducted Vice Chancellor," he said. The Dean, Arts Faculty of the Eastern University, Dr. Balasingham Sugumar was also abducted on September 30 last year by unidentified persons and was later released. The abductors demanded Prof. Ravindranaths resignation.
21
Disappearances in human rights law
In international human rights law, disappearances at the hand of the state have been codified as enforced or forced disappearances. For example, the Rome Statute establishing the International Criminal Court defines enforced disappearance as a crime against humanity, and the practice is specifically addressed by the OAS's Inter-American Convention on Forced Disappearance of Persons.
The International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance, adopted by the UN General Assembly on December 20, 2006, also states that the widespread or systematic practice of enforced disappearances constitutes a crime against humanity. Crucially, it gives victims' families the right to seek reparations and to demand the truth about the disappearance of their loved ones.
Disappearances work on two levels: not only do they effectively silence those opposition members who have disappeared, they also sow uncertainty and terror in the wider community in general, thus silencing other opposition voices, current and potential alike. Disappearances entail the violation of a series of basic human rights and fundamental freedoms. For the disappeared person, these include the right to liberty, the right to personal security and humane treatment (including freedom from torture), the right to a fair trial, to legal counsel, and to equal protection under the law, the right of presumption of innocence, et cetera. The families, who often spend the rest of their lives in searches for remains of the disappeared, also become victims of the disappearance's effects. (http://en.wikipedia.org)
* * * * *
Abductions carried out by the Paramilitary with the help of
Sri Lankan military intelligence, outside North East
Abductions, Disappearances and Killings – (Recent available information)
49 Abducted / disappeared
11 Killed after abduction – bodies found
13 Released after ransom was paid to the paramilitary.
Full Name Age Date
of Suspects Place
of incident
incident involved
Satsothi Soruban 44 1/2/2007 Paramilitary Abducted at Manning Place,
7.00pm Wellawatta
Parents have lodged a complaint at the Wellawatte police.
Palanisamy Suresh 28 1/2/2007 Paramilitary Abducted
from his home
8.00pm in
a white van 43/35
Bonjan Street Kotahena
Colombo 13
Suresh is
the son of Palanisamy owner of Annapoorna Hotel in Colombo.
Yogaraj Madanraj 26 30/1/2007 Paramilitary 100 yards from the Kotahena
7.00pm in a white van Police station, Colombo
Yogaraj Madanraj was arrested by Kotahena police on 28/1/2007 and released on 30th January, 2007. While he was walking from the police station to his home, he was abducted up by men who came in a white colour van.
Nadaraja Vijayakumar 55 31/1/2007 Paramilitary near Perera Lane, Wellawatte
8.00pm in a white van Colombo-6
He is a Money changer residing at Perera lane Wellawatta. A complaint has been lodged at the Wellawatte police.
22
Full Name Age Date of Suspects Place of incident
incident involved
Rashan Savarimuthu 15 11/1/2007 Paramilitary 23/1 Jubilee Mawatha
Colombo 15
He is a school student went missing after a week of abduction.
S.N. Ketheeswaran 31 10/1/2007 Paramilitary 328/9 Aluthmawatha Road
S.N.Kanapathy Nadar 27 Colombo 15
Both brothers jointly run a transportation business in Colombo.
Selladorai Devendran 53 9/1/2007 Paramilitary Abducted
from his home
Aluthmawatha
Road, Co - 15
He was released on the following day. Blind folded and kept under custody for one full day.
S Sridhran 25 9/1/2007 Paramilitary Abducted from their homes
M Suvendran 24 6.00pm Garment watte, Karande, Puttalam
K Soundrakumar 27 8/1/2007 Paramilitary Wellawatte Colombo 06
Selavarasa Madhi 8/1/2007 Paramilitary Abducted near his home
12, St Marys Road
Mattakuliya Colombo-15
T Jesudason 37 7/1/2007 Paramilitary Abducted
near Galpotha St
in a white van junction, Colombo 13
V Varadarasan 40 7/1/2007 Paramilitary Stadium Gama Colombo 14
A complaint
has been lodged by his family at Grandpass police, Colombo
Thangavelu Mayooran 23 22/12/2006 Paramilitary Abducted from his work place
11.30pm in a white van Galle rd, Wellawatta, Co-6
A complaint has been lodged by Mayooran's family at Wellawatte police.
Prof S Raveendranath 55 15/12/2006 Paramilitary Abducted
in High Secu/Zone at
1.00 pm near
BMICH in Colombo 07 A
complaint has been lodged at Dehiwela police.
T Puvaneshwaran 55 14/12/2006 Paramilitary Abducted from his shop
147 Kumarathunga Mawatha,
Matara
Puvaneshwaran was released on 28th December, 2007 after paying a ransom of Rs.15 million. A complaint has been lodged at Matara police.
Maxie Bolton 43 9/12/2006 Paramilitary Abducted from his shop
8.00pm in a white van Paramananda Vihara
Mawatha, Colombo 13
A complaint
has been lodged at Kotahena police, Colombo
S Pradeepan 26 16/11/2006 Paramilitary Abducted from his work place
Wellawatte, Colombo-6
Complaints have be been lodged by his family to Human Rights Commission and at Wellawatte police
Nadarajah Raviraj 43 10/11/2006 Paramilitary Shot dead near his home
8.45am Elvitigala Mawatha,
Narahenpita, Colombo
Nadarajah Raviraj was a Tamil National Alliance(TNA) Member of Parliament for Jaffna District and member of Civil Monitoring Committee against abductions and extra judicial killings.
23
Full Name Age Date of Suspects Place of incident
incident involved
Arokyarani 48 1/11/2006 Paramilitary Shot dead at her Tailor shop
at Manning place, Wellawatte
Marimuthu Sivamani 55 30/10/2006 Paramilitary Abducted from his shop Slave Island, Colombo
On the following day, he was released after heavy torturing demanding ransom. A complaint has been lodged at the Kotahena police station.
Sathivel Thyagaraja 25 28/10/2006 Paramilitary Last seen at Peliyagoda
afternoon in a white van Peliyagoda
His vehicle
was found abandoned at a sideway in Peliyagoda, suburb of Colombo. A complaint
has been made at the Grandpass Police station.
Maheshwara Deepan 25 20/10/2006 Paramilitary Abducted from his work place
Modera Street, Colombo 15
A complaint has been lodged at the Modera Police station.
David Vigneshwaran 35 19/10/2006 Paramilitary Abducted and shot dead
Mrs V Thirukeshwary 30 1.00am Abducted from their home
Housing Scheme, Mattegoda
On the same day, their bodies were found near a roadside culvert in Piliyandala.
R B Bonaventhoor 30 19/10/2006 Paramilitary Abducted near his home
Aluthmawatha Road, Co-15
On the same days, his body with gun shots was found near a road side culvert, Walpola, Ragama.
Jayawardenage 46 19/10/2006 Paramilitary Abducted from his shop
Jeyarajah 12.00pm Borupana Rd, Rathmalana
His motorcycle was found near Soyzapura housing scheme in Moratuwa. A Complaint has been lodged at Moratuwa Police.
Shan George 15 17/10/2006 Paramilitary Abducted near his home
Church Street, Colombo 15
Abductors demanded ransom from his father. On 1st November, he was released after heavy torturing. A Complaint has been lodged at Mattakuliya police.
Warnakulasooriya 29 7/10/2006 Paramilitary Abducted at Thusara ave
Nimal 11pm in a white van Kudapaduwa, Negombo
On the following day, his body was found at Kantana.
Bala Jegadeeshwara 27 14/10/2006 Paramilitary Abducted at Pettah Bus
Gurukkal 2.00pm Station, Colombo
Hindu priest Janarthanan Bala Jegadeeshwara Gurukkal was released on 16th October. Priest had been interrogated at a secret location. The Abductors had burnt his hands with cigarette buts and assaulted him. A complaint has been lodged by his family at the Kotahena Police.
Edward Reginold 30 1/9/2006 Paramilitary Abducted from his work place
Jesudasan Union Assurance, Colombo 3
On the following day his body was found near Kelaninadhi Temple (Buddhist temple) Ferguson Rd Colombo 14. The body was identified by his parents.
24
Full Name Age Date of Suspects Place of incident
incident involved
Mrs Thavarajah 1/9/2006 Paramilitary Abducted at Vivekananda Rd
Thavamani Wellawatte, Colombo 06
She was released on the same day after severe torture
Nadarajah Manivannan 28 2/9/2006 Paramilitary Shot dead near his shop
Chitra Lane Colombo 05
W.M. Suriyakumar 26 9/9/2006 Paramilitary Abducted from his shop
10pm in a white van Subadhidharama Rd
Dehiwela
On the following days his body was found in a paddy field at Kelaniya.
E Palaniraja(Father) 60 12/9/2006 Paramilitary Abducted at Inner Flower rd
P Balasaravanan (Son) 23 in a white van Colombo
Ganesan Muhundan 21
Owner of a jewellery shop, his son and his employee were released on 23 Sept, after paying a big ransom. The vehicle involved in the abduction is Nissan Sunny vehicle, No. WPJE 9995.
Rathnasingham Jegan 27 13/9/2006 Paramilitary Abducted outside University
Thanabal 12pm Campus, Katubedda
T Prabakaran 30 15/9/2006 Paramilitary Abducted from his home 9am 49/1 Kotahena St, Col-13
Murugesu Gunalan 63 17/9/2006 Paramilitary Abducted from his Pharmacy
Gindupitiya, Colombo
He was released after paying a ransom.
T Mahendran 43 26/9/2006 Paramilitary Abducted opposite Udappu
S Paramasivam 40 in a white van Tamil Vidyalayam, Udappu
Puttalam
A complaint has been lodged at the Udappu Police station.
Ramiah Subramaniyam 30 26/9/2006 Paramilitary Abducted near his work place Delkanda, Colombo
S Kumarasamy 28/9/2006 Paramilitary Abducted near his home
in a white van Hini Appuhamy Mawatha
Colombo 13
He was released on the following day. One of the abductors was identified as Poobapillai Skandarajah of Batticaloa, belongs to a Paramilitary group
Manickam Easwaran 30 17/8/2006 Paramilitary Abducted from his restaurant
in a white van 283 Negombo rd, Wattala
The abductors demanded Easwaran's family to pay a ransom to A/c No. 10013719 at Commercial Bank, Vavuniya and A/c No. 8120023413 Commercial Bank, Kotahena, Colombo. Even after the ransom was deposited in those accounts, Easwaran is still missing. A complaint has been lodged at Wattala Police Station.
Mahalingam Suppiah 44 20/8/2006 Paramilitary He was last seen in Pettah
His family has lodged complaint with the Police.
S Manivannan 28 21/8/2006 Paramilitary Abducted from his shop
44 Kotahena St, Colombo 13
Mrs L Komathy 36 22/8/2006 Paramilitary Abducted from her home
10pm at Ratmalana, Colombo
25
Full Name Age Date of Suspects Place of incident
incident involved
Lal Premaratne 28 Paramilitary Last seen leaving office after Mrs. Premaratne 25 work
All three were working for Aero Lanka Ltd.
G Mahindan 24 23/8/2006 Paramilitary Abducted from a Lodge
Kandasamy Sridharan 24 in a white van 9, Grandpass Rd, Col - 14
R Rajkumar 21
A complaint has been lodged with the Human Rights Commission
Kunjupillai Sivakandan 34 23/8/2006 Paramilitary Abducted from his work place
2pm in a white van Messenger St Colombo
Complaints have been lodged with the Police and Human Rights Commi.
Sellathamby Sellakumar 38 28/8/2006 Paramilitary Abducted from his work place
9.30pm in a white van Thillaiyadi, Puttalam
Nadarajah Guruparan 39 29/8/2006 Paramilitary Abducted near his home
Mt. Lavinia, Colombo
He was released on the following day, after a pressure from the diplomatic community in Colombo.
Selliah Premasiri 5/7/2006 Paramilitary Abducted from the Lodge
S Satkunarasa 270 Sea St, Colombo 11
Ariyadasa Pushpadas 7/7/2006 Paramilitary Abducted from his home
12pm 84, Vivekananda Hill, Col-13
The abductors demanded 10 million rupees for the release of Pushpadas and got 4 million as an advancement payment but still Pushpadas was not released.
Complaints have been lodged to the Director of the CID in Colombo and also to the Human Rights Commission by his mother, Mrs Mariya Regina.
Muttiah Sathyaseelan 31 11/7/2006 Paramilitary Abducted from their residence
M Sureshkumar 22 3.00am Wataravum Mill Road,
Balakrishnan Ramar 24 Thillaiyadi, Puttalam
A complaint has been lodged at Puttlalam Police station.
S. Sriskandarajah 20/7/2006 Paramilitary Abducted near his home
Ramiah Jeyaraj (Driver) 23 Gregory's Road Colombo -7
Sriskandarajah is leading merchant in Colombo. The abductors demanded 30 million rupees as ransom and it was paid by the family for their release. Even after paying the ransom, they were not released.
V Chelvanayagam 2/5/2006 Paramilitary Last
seen in his work place
Colombo
Complaints have been lodged by Mrs Parameshwary Chelvanayagam with Kosgama Police and the Human Rights Commission.
Sivasamy Sukumar 40 May 2006 Paramilitary Last seen at Armour St,
M Narendrakumar 31 May 2006 Paramilitary Colombo
Their bodies were found in an estate are at Avissawella, in June 2006
Irudhayasamy Francis 34 26/5/2006 Paramilitary Abducted at Vivekananda
12.00pm in a white van College Vivekananda Hill
Colombo 13.
Sivarajah Sivagethran 16/4/2006 Paramilitary Abducted from the work place
Sivalingam Barathan in a white van Bathia Mawatha, Kalubowila,
26
Full Name Age Date of Suspects Place of incident
incident involved
Sivarajah Haran 22 26/4/2006 Paramilitary Abducted from his home
in a white van 8, Station Rd, Colombo 06
S Shganthikumar 26 13/3/2006 Paramilitary Abducted from a public bus
in a white van at Peradeniya, Kandy
A complaint has been lodged at Peradeniya Police.
Vadivelu Anandasiva 8/2/2006 Paramilitary Abducted on way back home
at Alexandra Road,
Wellawatte, Colombo 06
He was released after two days, after paying a ransom to the abductors.
Five headless bodies in an estate at Avissawella
In June 2006 five headless bodies were found in an estate area at Avissawella
Two bodies were found to be of two men who were missing since May, 2006. They were
last seen at Amour Street, Colombo.
Both bodies were identified as :
(1) Sivasamy Sukumar (40), a three wheeler driver of Paradise place, Amour St, Colombo 12
(2) Mahalingam Narendrakumar (31), a businessman of Telangapatha Rd, Wattala.
The identities of the other three bodies were not confirmed.
http://www.gopetition.com/petitions/stop-abductions-in-sri-lankan-capital.html
(Refer to page 89)
* * * * * *
Extra-Judicial Killings
4000 dead in past 15 months -- SLMM
The Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) said yesterday nearly 4000 people have lost their lives in incidents connected to the ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka during the past 15 months in contrast to the three previous years where less than 130 deaths relating to the conflict were recorded.
In a statement on the fifth anniversary of the CFA, the SLMM said a large number of persons have been seriously injured while thousands of families have been fleeing from areas of fighting.
In pursuit of a negotiated solution to the conflict, the Government of Sri Lanka and LTTE signed a Ceasefire Agreement on February 22, 2002. The Parties committed themselves to refrain from conduct that would undermine the spirit of the agreement. At the same time, the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) was set up. Following the Agreement, a considerable reduction of violence was reached, particularly welcomed by the families in the North and the East who had lived for two decades in areas ravaged by war, the SLMM said.
The ceasefire monitors were of the view the spate of abductions, harassments, killings, shelling and air strikes taking place at the moment were at a war-like level. In spite of the ongoing conflict, the SLMM said it remained committed to the Government of Sri Lanka and the LTTE - as a neutral party - to seek continuously to develop a deep understanding of the conflict situation, with the sincere aim of finding ways to continue its contribution according to the mandate. (Daily Mirror, 23 February 2007)
27
10 November 2007 - A prominent Parliamentarian of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA), Mr Nadarajah Raviraj, was shot dead, outside his home in Narahenpitiya, Colombo. The assassins who arrived in a three-wheeler fired the fatal shots at the MP and left on a motorbike. His bodyguard was killed in the same incident.
Since Raviraj was elected to parliament in 2001, he had spoken openly and strongly against the atrocities committed by the Sri Lankan security forces. He never hesitated to speak out against the paramilitary forces which work closely with the Sri Lankan military intelligence.
A week before his killing, during the parliament session, Raviraj had an argument with Douglas Devananda, leader of a paramilitary group known as the EPDP and Minister in the present cabinet. Many in parliament, including the speaker, witnessed this.
Soon after Raviraj's killing, the leader of the TNA, R. Sampanthan, told the press that, "Raviraj's assassination is a clear attempt by the paramilitary operating with the Sri Lanka Army to stifle the Tamil parliamentarians' voice in and out of the Parliament to inform the International Community of the Sri Lanka government's genocide against the Tamils."
Nadarajah Raviraj was a well-known human rights lawyer, and had been Mayor of Jaffna city. He was involved in the Civil Monitoring Committee (CMC) which has been investigating the recent brutal kidnappings and killings of Tamils.
In an interview given to the London-based Tamil journal, Thesam, in October Nadarajah Raviraj was highly critical of the government for waging war on the Tamil minority and cultivating paramilitary groups which have worked in collusion with the Sri Lankan Army.
Calls for witness protection
(BBC Sinhala Service – 5 February 2007)
A Paris based charity has called on Sri Lanka government to establish a witness protection programme to increase the efficiency of investigations of human rights abuses.
Action Against Hunger (AAH), (Action Contre la Faim – ACF) whose workers were killed in Muttur in August last year, says the lack of protection for witnesses is an impediment for the murder investigation.
The killing of 17 aid workers on 06 August sparked international outrage. Calling the murder as a "war crime" the United Nations called for an independent investigation.
In a statement issued to mark six months since the murder, the AAH says it considers "the establishment of a witness protection programme is imperative if we are to find out exactly what happened".
The charity has expressed serious concern that no suspect has been identified and brought to justice after several months of investigation.
Absence of witness protection programme in Sri Lanka is one of the main reasons for witnesses not to have spoken out, the charity says.
(http://www.bbc.co.uk/sinhala/news/story/2007/02/070205_aid_workers.shtml)
Lankan inquiry of no use says former SLMM Chief
Henricsson sees burial of truth in aid workers massacre
(The Morning Leader - October 11, 2006)
Former SLMM Head Ulf Henricsson last week said that a local investigation into the murders of the 17 Action Contre le Faim aid workers in Muttur would not reveal the truth while reiterating claims that government forces were implicated in the massacre.
"It is clear that government forces have been implicated, several sources have confirmed their implication. At the moment of the massacre the zone was totally controlled by government forces. The SLMM will only reveal its sources to an international commission," Henricsson said while addressing the press in Paris last week.
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He added, "I don't believe in an inquiry conducted by the Sri Lankan judicial system. We are at a war situation in Sri Lanka. No party to the conflict can carry out an objective inquiry. The only solution is an independent international commission."
Henricsson was attending a press conference held by ACF to mark the second month anniversary of the massacre.
However Defence Spokesperson Minister Keheliya Rambukwella told The Morning Leader that the former SLMM head did not have a right to make such comments and it was only obvious that he wanted to sling mud at the government.
"No one can take him seriously, especially the international community. Investigations into the Muttur massacre are continuing and till such time inquiries conclude, no party can be held responsible. He is a man who is living in an imaginary world," Minister Rambukwella said.
Meanwhile, ACF officials said that they were not accusing any one of the murders but that it was up to the government to bring the culprits to justice.
"We don't want to point fingers at anyone, we want the Sri Lankan government to take its responsibilities. We want the truth behind the massacre," ACF President, Denise Metzger said. ACF has not been informed of any new developments in the investigation two months after the massacre. "We don't have any information why the massacre took place, there has been no new light shed by the government on the investigation. The investigation is still in its preliminary stage," ACF Director General Beniot Miribel said.
ACF has been informed that the autopsies of the two exhumed corps and the exhumation of the remaining 15 would take place if official authorization was delivered. Himalee Arunatilake from the Sri Lankan Mission in Paris said that following an order by President Mahinda Rajapakse international experts would be included in the commission as observers. But she could not elaborate on their mandate or the numbers.
Miribel said that the truth would only come out if the witnesses were protected. He also doubted any new findings through the two post mortems.
Experts return 'empty handed'
BBC Sinhala service
An expert panel of investigators from Australia has returned empty handed after Sri Lanka and Australia failed to agree on terms and conditions on their investigation.
S Ratnavel, counsel representing the families of the 17 aid workers killed in Muttur, said the experts returned after spending 20 days in the island. The expert team on explosives has been invited by the Sri Lanka government to help investigate the murder of the local workers of France based aid organisation, Action Against Hunger (ACF).
Witness protection
The counsellor told the magistrate court in Kanthale that the authorities have failed to guarantee the safety of the eye witnesses.
Head of the CID team investigating the murder, SI Sanjaya Perera, told the court of the importance to issue death certificates based on post mortem reports of the killed workers.
He said so far no eyewitness accounts were produced before courts. Rejecting the claim counsel Ratnavel said the families were not merely looking for death certificates.
Finding the culprits
They would like to know the truth about the incident and find the perpetrators, the counsel added. 17 aid workers of Action Against Hunger (ACF) were found murdered on 04 August in Muttur.
The killing sparked international calls for justice. Describing it as a "war crime" the international community called on the authorities to conduct full independent investigation into the killing. But the ACF expressed concern of the lack of progress in the investigation.
(http://www.bbc.co.uk/sinhala/news/story/2007/01/070117_aid_workers.shtml)
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"As a display of contempt towards the sanctity of humanitarian assistance, a massacre blamed on Sri Lankan soldiers, of 17 locally hired aid workers last summer takes some beating", says the latest edition of the Economist, commenting on the release of a new report on the dangers facing aid workers.
The Sri Lankan aid workers were shot at close range, inside their compound, while wearing the T-shirts of their humanitarian agency. I remember the killings well because I had helped to establish a programme for another humanitarian agency in Sri Lanka, just after the tsunami, and one of our own drivers had been murdered in similar circumstances a few months previously. He had refused to give a lift to some soldiers and was shot dead just yards from a checkpoint, where his killers must have either been the military or operating with their assistance.
Although I was only in Sri Lanka for a couple of months the year beforehand, I still feel some collective guilt about the killing. I have hired local staff in many countries where I have helped to establish programmes and participated in their training where we emphasise their responsibility to remain absolutely neutral during conflicts. By refusing to allow soldiers to commandeer his vehicle, our Sri Lankan driver gave his life to uphold this ethic.
According to the report, by the Center on International Cooperation, between 1997 and 2006, nearly 500 aid workers lost their lives in the course of their duty while slightly more were wounded or kidnapped. This is almost as high as the number of soldiers who have died in UN peacekeeping operations and I have personally lost count of the number of colleagues whose lives have been damaged by violent incidents. (Excerpt)
Security Forces Gun Down Evangelical Pastor in Sri Lanka
By Daniel Blake - Christian Post Correspondent
Fri, Jan. 19 2007 - A Christian pastor was shot dead by security forces in Jaffna, Sri Lanka, this past weekend, according to a report from the National Christian Evangelical Alliance of Sri Lanka (NCEASL).
The Rev Nallathamby Gnanaseelan, 38, was the Pastor of the Tamil Mission Church
in Jaffna. He was a member of the NCEASL and, according to their report, was
not engaged in any political activity.
Gnanaseelan was killed Saturday on Chapel Street after he had taken his wife
and daughter to hospital, Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW) told U.K.-based
Christian Today.
According to reports, Gnanaseelan was shot in the stomach and then in the head.
His Bible, bag, identity card and motorcycle were taken away and he was left in
the road.
Sri Lankan security forces initially claimed he had been carrying explosives
and then said he was shot because he failed to stop when challenged.
In recent months there has been a dramatic upsurge in violence in Sri Lanka,
particularly in Jaffna, as the conflict between the Liberation Tigers of Tamil
Eelam (LTTE) and the government has escalated.
According to the NCEASL, extrajudicial killings, abductions and disappearances
have been widespread and the civilian population has been facing a severe
shortage of food and medicine, enduring immense hardship and suffering."
In a statement, the NCEASL said: Thousands of people are arbitrarily arrested,
tortured or ill-treated We call upon the international community to raise
their voices and prevent the massacre of the innocents in this country.
The establishing of a United Nations human rights monitoring mission in Sri Lanka is an urgent need. The world cannot stand by and watch as this situation deteriorates, while every day, people pay with their lives. In addition to the deteriorating political situation in Sri Lanka, violence against Christians continues and the Sri Lankan parliament is considering a proposed anti-conversion law.
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Mervyn Thomas, Chief Executive of Christian Solidarity Worldwide, said: We
offer our deepest condolences and sympathy to the pastors family as they mourn.
While the Rev Gnanaseelans murder may not have been primarily motivated by
religion, it will only increase the tension for Sri Lankas religious
minorities.
We urge all sides to the conflict, including the Sri Lankan government, the LTTE and paramilitary forces, to cease the violations of human rights, and we urge the international community to take action to bring the escalating conflict in Sri Lanka to an end.
Christian Pastor shot dead by the Sri Lanka Army in Jaffna
19 January 2007 - Pastor and head of Christian Evangelical Alliance in Jaffna
– Rev. Nallathamby Gnanaseelan (38), was shot dead by the Sri Lankan
army. The National Christian Evangelical Alliance of Sri Lanka (NCEASL) said on
Wednesday, 17 January 2007, that the Sri Lanka Army shot dead Pastor
Gnanaseelan on 13 January, and removed the identification documents and the
Bible. The soldier charged that the victim was an unidentified attacker
carrying explosives.
The motorcycle of the Pastor was taken away by the Sri Lanka Army soldiers.
In a statement released by the National Christian Evangelical Alliance of Sri Lanka (NCEASL) on 17 January 2007, said Rev. Nallathamby Gnanaseelan was shot in the stomach and then in the head. His Bible, bag, identity card and motorcycle were apparently taken away and he was left alone on the road.
Sri Lankan security forces reportedly claimed he had been carrying explosives, and then said he was shot because "he failed to stop" when challenged.
Advocacy group Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW) said the attack came amid "a dramatic upsurge in violence in Sri Lanka, particularly in Jaffna, as the conflict between the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and the Government has escalated.
EXTRAJUDICIAL KILLINGS
The NCEASL has reportedly said that extrajudicial killings, abductions and disappearances have been widespread, and "the civilian population has been facing a severe shortage of food and medicine, enduring immense hardship and suffering."
The group claimed that, "Thousands of people are arbitrarily arrested, tortured or ill-treated We call upon the international community to raise their voices and prevent the massacre of the innocents in this country."
Sri Lankan Christians and human rights groups have also urged the authorities to establish a United Nations human rights monitoring mission in Sri Lanka. CSW said it was also concerned that violence against Christians will be encouraged as the Sri Lankan Parliament is considering a controversial anti-conversion law.
"While Rev. Gnanaseelans murder may not have been primarily motivated by religion, it will only increase the tension for Sri Lankas religious minorities, said CSW Chief Executive Mervyn Thomas in a statement to BosNewsLife. "We urge all sides to the conflict, including the Sri Lankan Government, the LTTE and paramilitary forces, to cease the violations of human rights, and we urge the international community to take action to bring the escalating conflict in Sri Lanka to an end."
DUBLIN, February 20 (Compass Direct News) – Following a renewed outbreak of civil war between the Sri Lankan government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), churches in the northeast are fast becoming another war casualty.
The LTTE has fought for an independent Tamil homeland in the northeast since the 1980s. While both parties to the conflict say they are committed to a 2002 ceasefire agreement, analysts say the current situation is more like an undeclared war.
Since hostilities resumed in earnest last year, churches on the Jaffna Peninsula have provided shelter to hundreds of internally displaced people (IDPs), prompting retaliatory raids by the Sri Lankan army.
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One wonders if the attacks on churches are just a coincidence, or an attempt by the government to warn the clergy not to give protection to these defenceless people, one source, who preferred to remain anonymous, told Compass.
The same source said those speaking out for IDPs were often silenced by intimidation or elimination, often in the form of unexplained disappearances.
The church, unable to remain a silent witness, has raised its concerns with the outside world, the source added. The government of Sri Lanka has taken note and appears to have sought, directly and indirectly, to silence these voices by abducting and sometimes eliminating church officials.
Deaths and Disappearances
Just over a month ago, on January 13, members of the Sri Lankan security forces gunned down the Rev. Nallathamby Gnanaseelan.
Gnanaseelan, 38 years old and father to four young children, led the Tamil Mission Church in Jaffna.
On the morning he was killed, Gnanaseelan had dropped his wife and daughter at a local hospital and headed towards his church, where members had gathered for prayer. Before he could reach the church, however, he was shot in the stomach and head. His Bible, bag, identity card and motorbike were taken, and he was left lying in the street.
Security forces initially said Gnanaseelan was shot for carrying explosives but later said he was shot for not stopping when ordered to do so. Local Christians say the initial accusation was a deliberate attempt to frame the minister, who was a respected member of the National Christian Evangelical Alliance Clergy Fellowship in Jaffna and was not involved in any political activity.
The Rev. Father Thiruchchelvan Nihal Jim Brown (commonly known as Fr. Jim Brown) and his assistant, Wenceslaus Vinces Vimalathas, may have met a similar fate. Both men disappeared on August 20, 2006, according to local media reports.
Witnesses said they saw the two men in the village of Allaipiddy, on Kayts Island off the Jaffna Peninsula, at about 2:15 p.m. on August 20, being followed from the Allaipiddy navy checkpoint by six armed men on motorbikes. Neither man has been seen since.
Navy commanders denied arresting the two men.
Brown and Vimalathas had gone to visit Browns church in the parish of St. Philip Neri. The church and predominantly Catholic neighbourhood were abandoned a week earlier, after the church was shelled on August 13.
A fire fight had broken out on August 13 between navy officers and the LTTE in Allaipiddy, leaving 15 civilians dead and at least 54 injured in the crossfire. Many villagers sought shelter at the church of St. Philip Neri. When the fighting died down, Brown helped about 800 people move to St. Marys church in the nearby town of Kayts. Some witnesses said he got down on his knees at the checkpoint to request a safe transfer.
Shortly afterwards, according to an Amnesty International report, the commanding officer of the navy in Allaipiddy scolded Brown and accused him of helping the Tigers to build bunkers. Brown, however, said the church members had dug bunkers to protect themselves from the shelling and bombing of church premises.
Brown had replaced another priest, Father Amal Raj, who sought transfer from St. Philip Neris after the May 13 murder of a Catholic family in the village. Naval officers threatened Raj with death after he protested the shootings.
Security forces had previously attacked Alaipiddy and two other Catholic-majority villages, Vankalai and Pesalai, on June 17, 2006. During the attack, a grenade was thrown into Our Lady of Victory Church in Pesalai, where 200 people had taken shelter – killing one person and injuring 47.
We were all inside the church when the navy and army broke in and opened fire. A grenade was thrown in through a window, Mariyadas Loggu told the Associated Press.
Civilians often take shelter in churches, viewing them as safe havens; in some villages, residents who are fearful of air raids sleep every night at the local Catholic church.
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Catholic priests elsewhere on the Jaffna Peninsula have confirmed the deaths of many civilians through aerial bombing, shelling, shooting and crossfire – much of it carried out by Sri Lankan security forces.
Civilians are targeted by both army and Tiger rebels – with soldiers arresting and interrogating hundreds, while Tiger rebels have tortured and killed whole families suspected of siding with government forces.
By September 2006, more than 200,000 people had been displaced in the northeast, with homes, schools and places of worship destroyed indiscriminately.
Blurred Lines
Church officials have also complained about government blockades on the Jaffna Peninsula, cutting off vital food and medical supplies to civilians who are affected by, but not involved in the conflict.
In a civil war, the lines are blurred indeed, Godfrey Yogarajah, president of the National Christian Evangelical Fellowship of Sri Lanka (NCEASL), told Compass. He pointed out that religious liberty issues are intrinsically linked to the general climate of human rights abuse.
The NCEASL has called for urgent United Nations intervention.
Thousands of people are being arbitrarily arrested, tortured or ill-treated, NCEASL declared in a recent statement. We call upon the international community to raise their voices and prevent the massacre of the innocents in this country. The establishing of a United Nations human rights monitoring mission in Sri Lanka is an urgent need. The world cannot stand by and watch as this situation deteriorates, while every day, people pay with their lives.
Attacks on churches are not new to Sri Lanka. Since 2002, large mobs – often led by Buddhist monks – have led a string of attacks on churches in the south. Buddhist clergy have also campaigned for a national anti-conversion law, modeled on similar laws in India, to restrict the growth of Christian churches.
Two separate anti-conversion bills are still making their way through Parliament, although the renewal of civil war has brought a temporary halt to the campaign. (See Compass Direct News, Anti-Conversion Bill Revived in Parliament, April 26, 2006.)
Threats and Attacks in Southern Sri Lanka
Bangaragama: At about 11:15 a.m. on February 11, a mob began throwing stones into a hall owned by the Christian Center in Bangaragama, Colombo district, as people were praying inside.
Roofing was damaged but no injuries were recorded. A complaint was registered with local police.
This was not the first attack on the Christian Center. On December 24, 2006, anti-Christian posters were displayed in the town, and on December 10 a mob smashed the hall windows.
Polonnaruwa: On the morning of February 9, people travelling in a van with a loudspeaker began calling residents of Polonnaruwa district to a public meeting at the New Town Buddhist Vihara. The meeting was called to chase away Christians and those who help Christians.
The van was spotted in several areas of Polonnaruwa district. Although permission to use a loudspeaker is required by law, police said no such permission had been granted.
When the event took place at 3 p.m., about 150 people attended. The police were present and took action to prevent any outbreak of violence. During the meeting, however, the crowd decided they would strongly advise Christian clergy in the area to stop Christian activity in the district or face harsh consequences.
This threat, if carried out, would violate the freedom of religion and freedom of worship guaranteed to all citizens under Sri Lankan law.
Source - National Christian Evangelical Alliance of Sri Lanka
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Sri Lankan Government made Jaffna Peninsula as an open prison
Reported by Fr Paramavalan Peter CMF from Jaffna Sri Lanka, B.A. (India), B.Th. (Rome), M.A.(Philippines) S.T.L.(Frankfurt), S.T.D (Philippines).
The military machinery and the Sinhalese collectivism of the Buddhist State has abridged the dignity of the people of Jaffna to the subhuman condition. Imposing economic embargo and closing the A9 highway it has blocked the supply of food, medicine, fuel and other essential commodities for the normal life of the people. Even the pregnant mothers, newborn babies, bedridden sick are being deprived of their food. The Sri Lankan Government has made the Jaffna Peninsula as an open prison and deliberately and systematically torturing them and making their lives bitter day by day.
The State deliberately tortures its own subjects in order to get information for its military victory and for the protection of its military machinery. The "State Terrorism" of the Sri Lankan government terrors the innocent people and creates a feeling of "terror" in the person of the Jaffna personally and collectively, which distorts the whole personality, it curtails the human relationships and human activities in the family, community and society of the person in a collective way.
The purpose of torturing the people of Jaffna by the Sri Lankan Armed forces is to get information, to get the consent, to punish, to rob, to abuse physically and to destroy the whole personality individually as well as collectively. The methods of tortures to cause severe pain in the body, amputation, deform the body and making permanently disable. They are being psychologically tortured by the military machinery in order to segregate, to threat, to punish, to sexually abuse, to create a fear of being arrested and cruelly tortured and to make them to see how others and being tortured cruelly.
Amnesty International has evidence of cases particularly Tamil women from the Northeast, in custody were blindfolded, beaten, had their clothes forcibly removed and were brutally raped by the Sri Lankan security forces. Such allegations of rape in custody by army, police and navy officials in Sri Lanka have increased markedly in the past years. There are cases where the Tamil women in custody were made to parade naked in front of the security forces. They were then made to sit in a crouched position; their hands and legs were tied and attached to a pole which was then placed between two tables so they were left hanging. They were in this position for about more than one hour and were pinched and beaten with a thick wire during that time.
Method of Torture
Tamil men in custody have allegedly been repeatedly beaten with batons, and security men throw chilli powder into the eyes and on the genital organ of the detainees and cruelly torture them in a such way that they can not walk for some days. The security men had a plastic bag filled with petrol tied over their heads until they nearly suffocate. There are many instances the severe cruelty of torture being seen by vomiting blood, bodily injuries, open wounds and in the extreme cases it ends in murder of the Tamil youths by the security officers. Torture continued to be reported on an almost daily basis. There were several reports of rape by the Sri Lankan security forces from the districts of Mannar, Batticaloa, Trincomalee, Jaffna and Colombo.
These methods of tortures cause guilt feeling, create traumas, degrade the human personality, create biological and emotional disorder and create malfunction of intellect and will of the person individually and collectively.
Massive explosive sound like Artillery shelling and multi barrel shelling of the Sinhalese armed forces create a feeling in the people to be submissive and slave to the demoniac military machinery and this shelling even at unearthly hours of the nights in which the people are in deep slumber destroy their sleep and creates the sickness of insomnia.
2000 Civilians killed and disappeared
During the last 11 Months more than 2000 Tamil civilian have been killed in the form of forced disappearance and extra judicial killings by the Sri Lankan security forces and its paramilitary forces in the Traditional Home Land of the Tamils in the Northeast. All the important human rights organisations, even the United Nations have condemned Sri Lankan Government for indiscriminate bombing and shelling of civilians in the Northeast, starving the people of Jaffna, condoning the acts of murder, arbitrary arrest, cruel torture, abduction and forced disappearances that reveal the hands of paramilitary personnel, the security forces and police. On the 8th of November Solheim who is the chief peace-broker for Sri Lanka, said "This is very serious. Government forces fired at unarmed people in Vakarai with the aim of killing them."
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The Sinhalese Buddhist Government of Sri Lanka by a systematic militarization of the Traditional Home Land of the Tamils, has permanently created fighters, military machinery, Paramilitary forces, corrupt politicians and their members and a new elite of dealers who can even in the international black market discover needed weapons in order to permanently maintain the Traditional Home Land of the Tamil as a war zone and inflict terror in the civilian Tamil people. The continuation of these 23 years of civil war confirms that the militarization and inflict terror in the Tamils by the Sri Lankan Government.
The human rights crisis in Jaffna, especially the killings, is the result of the government's deliberate move to suppress voice of the civil society, and civilian individuals from emerging. This counterinsurgency tactic to suppress such voices by making civilians too terrified to speak out. It is absurd on the part of India and sections of the international community while rejecting the LTTE and the MPs who were elected by the people of the Northeast and supporting non-LTTE Tamil groups as the 'democratic alternative', by suppressing the Tamil society by terror tactics of the military. It makes the oppressed people to justify intrinsically and implicitly that violence against the oppressor by the oppressed is non-violence or lesser-violence.
For the ethnically oppressed minority Tamil people, liberation is about restoring the "invisible institution of morality" which is the true foundation of justice, equity, accountability and all the other cherished values of democratic society.
Reported by Fr Paramavalan Peter CMF from Jaffna Sri Lanka, B.A. (India), B.Th. (Rome), M.A. (Philippines) S.T.L.(Frankfurt), S.T.D (Philippines).
(Refer to page 71)
* * * * * *
Arrest and detention
Tamil detainees were on fast unto death
From 20 February 2007, Tamil detainees in the Magazine prison in Colombo, had a
fast-unto-death campaign for six days, urging the Sri Lankan authorities to
expedite the investigations against them or release them if there were no
charges. They were arrested by Sri Lankan security forces and detained without
any charges for many years.
Those who were on the fast are as follows :
(1) Anthony Sathiyanathan, Mulankavil (6-12-2005); (2) Arumugam Sashikumar, Poonery (6-12-2005); (3) Arumugam Senthilkumar, Kopay-Jaffna (5-2-2005); (4) Isidor Arokyanathan, Kotahena-Colombo (21-8-2005); (5) Iyampillai Rajkumar, Eediyanthoddai (22-7-2005); (6) Kanthasamy Paheerathan, Poonery (6-12-2005); (7) Mahendran Puvitharan, Periyanelavanai-Batticaloa (6-2-2003); (8) Mahenthirarasa Paranthaman, Batticaloa (10-2-2004); (9) Manickam Thamilinian, Pasarai (30-7-2005); (10) Murugathas Sivaroopan, Kaythaddy-Jaffna 22-12-2005); (11) Muthaiah Sahathevan, Kirilapone (20-8-2005); (12) Perinpanathan Kangatharan, Periya Porathivu-Batticaloa 10-7-2004); (13) Rathinam Ananantharajah, Mallakam (13-1-2006); (14) Rangan Janakan, Baddula (3-7-2005); (15) Rasiah Ananntharajah, Mallavi (20-4-2006); (16) Rohithan Thineshkumar, Vavuniya (1-4-2006); (17) Sebestian Shakespiear, Batticaloa (5-1-2006); (18) Solaimalai Jegatheeswaran, Nanaddan-Mannar (29-12-2005); (19) Thankarasa Surenthiran, Urugodawatta, Wellampity (1-4-2006), (20) Thevarajah Kirupakaran, Adampan – Mannar (29-12-2005)
Following the assurance given by the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) Parliamentarians to assist the fasting detainees, they called off their fast temporarily on 26 February 2007.
Arrests of Tamils continue
15 in Poonagala and Bandarawella
26 February 2007 - During a search operation in Poonagala, Bandarawella fifteen Tamil youths were arrested by the Sri Lankan Police.
24 in Hatton
19 February 2007 - Sri Lanka Army and Police have arrested twenty five Tamil youths in a cordon and searched operation in Hatton.
35
30 in Kandy
19 February 2007 - Sri Lanka Army and Police have arrested thirty Tamil youths in a cordon and searched operation in Teldeniya and Kandy.
22 in Moratuwa
15 February 2007 - In a cordon and search operation in Moratuwa area, the Police has arrested twenty two Tamils.
50 in Vavuniya
10 February 2007 – According to Vavuniya Human Rights Commission (HRC), fifty Tamils have been arrested within the last few days.
15 in Chilaw
09 February 2007 - In a cordon and search operation in Munthal, Uddapu and Munneswaram in Chilaw, the Army and the Police have arrested fifteen Tamils.
20 in Dankotuwa
5 February 2007 - In a cordon and search operation in Dankotuwa by the Sri Lankan security forces, 20 Tamils have been arrested.
55 in Kohuwela, Dehiwela
4 February 2007- In a cordon and search operation in Kohuwela, Dehiwela area in Colombo, the Security forces have arrested fifty five Tamil youth including students.
20 in Wennapuwa, Negombo
3 February 2007 - In a cordon and search operation in Wennapuwa, Negombo, the Security forces have arrested twenty Tamil youths.
700 in Colombo
4 February 2007 - In two days cordon and search operation by the Sri Lanka Army and Police, in Fort and Pettah area in Colombo, nearly seven hundred Tamils have been arrested and detained in Fort Police station.
65 in Uppuveli
1 February 2007 - In a combined cordon and search operation by Sri Lanka forces in Uppuveli in Trincomalee, sixty five Tamils have been arrested by the Police.
35 in Colombo
30 January 2007 – The Sri Lanka police has arrested thirty five Tamils in Colombo north, during a search operation on vehicles operating between Colombo and Kandy.
35 in Moratuwa
27 January 2007- During a cordon and search operation in houses and lodges in Moratuwa area, the Police has interrogated more than six hundred Tamils and arrested thirty five.
45 in Hambantota
26 January 2007 - In a combined cordon and search operation in Hambantota, forty five Tamils were arrested by the Sri Lankan security forces.
45 missing in three weeks in Vavuniya
23 January 2007 – According to the Human Rights Commission (HRC) in Vavuniya, forty five Tamils have been reported missing in three weeks.
250 in Puttalam Anamaduwa and Vannathivillu
18 January 2007 – In cordon and search operation by the Sri Lanka Army and Police in Puttalam, Anamaduwa and Vannathivillu areas, two hundred and fifty Tamils were arrested.
50 in Wattala, Colombo
18 January 2007 - In a cordon and search operation by the Police in Wattala, Colombo, fifty Tamils were arrested by the Police.
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300 in Minuwangoda, Nittambuwa and Gampaha
13 January 2007 – In a cordon and search operations by the Security forces in Borelesgamuwa, Minuwangoda, Nittambuwa and Gampaha, three hundred Tamils have been arrested.
44 in Colombo
9 January 2007 - Forty four Tamils were arrested In a cordon and search operation in Mount Lavenia by the Sri Lanka Army and the Police personnel, sixty Tamils have been arrested.
80 in Kalutara, Chilaw
10 January 2007 - In two days cordon and search operations in Kalutara, Bandaragama and Uddappu, eight Tamils have been arrested by the Security forces.
40 in Colombo suburbs
9 January 2007 - More than 40 Tamils were arrested Tuesday In a cordon and search operation by the Sri Lanka Army and Police from in Minuwangoda, Negombo, Wattala and Gampaha sixty Tamils have been arrested.
Sri Lanka's Upcountry Tamils are more prone to arrest
25 January 2007, ColomboPage News Desk, Sri Lanka -- The Sri Lankan
government's ally Upcountry People's Front (UPF) says that 10-15 Upcountry
Tamil youths are arrested daily at checkpoints while travelling from Nuwara
Eliya to Colombo. Nearly 400 Tamils of Indian origin were arrested by the
security forces during the last few weeks, said Deputy Minister for Vocational
Training Radhakrishnan.
Some 116 of those arrested - 108 boys and 8 girls - are being detained in the Boossa detention camp in the Galle district of the Southern Province, said a UPF spokesperson. The around one million Indian origin Upcountry Tamils, who are concentrated in the hill country plantations, have become vulnerable to disappearance, abduction, arrest and detention due to their resemblance to members of the LTTE, who hail from the Sri Lankan Tamil community and are fighting for a separate Tamil state in the countrys North and East.
Upcountry Tamils migrate to Colombo and other major cities in search of work in minor jobs. They are more vulnerable due to their low level of education, lack of proper identity documents and language barriers.
'Hundreds of' Indian Tamils detained
24 January, 2007, - The President of Sri Lanka, Mahinda Rajapaksa, has ordered the police to take immediate steps to release detained Tamil youths of Indian origin. In a meeting held with union leaders of plantation workers, Mr. Rajapaksa has ordered the police to produce those accused of any wrongdoings before the courts.
Leaders of the Up Country Peoples Front (UPF), Minister P Chandrasekaran and Deputy Minister P Radhakrishnan met the Head of State to discuss the issue on Saturday. Nearly 400 Tamils of Indian origin were arrested by the security forces during the last few weeks, Deputy Minister for Vocational Training Radhakrishnan told BBC Sandeshaya.
116 of those arrested - 108 boys and eight girls - have been sent to the "infamous" military detention camp in Boossa, the minister said.
Looking for a better life
Over one million Tamils of Indian origin have made their home in picturesque plantations in the Up Country in Central Sri Lanka. The increasing cost of living, poverty and the desire to find a reasonable life has forced some of the younger generation into the capital and suburbs.
Many have been working in the catering industry while many others are still employed as domestic workers. However, they have become a vulnerable groups under the new tough security measures as many do not posses National Identity cards.
They have to pass many check points on the way to Colombo. 10-15 Tamils youths are daily arrested in one journey, for example, from Nuwara Eliya to Colombo, says UPF vice president, A Lawrence. The UPF, a major union representing Tamils of Indian origin, last year joined President Mahinda Rajapaksas government.
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'Rehabilitating' Tamil youths
The UPF leaders accused the authorities of not living up to an earlier pledge to discuss the arrests with the UPF officials. The Defence Affairs spokesman, Minister Keheliya Rambukwella, who did not deny detaining Tamils of Indian origin in cordon operations, said it is the duty of the government to guide the misguided youth.
The Boossa camp is used to rehabilitate the youths who have either voluntarily left or captured from the Tamil Tigers, Mr. Rambukwella said. Reacting to Minister Rambukwella, Mr. Radhakrishnan categorically denies those currently detained in the camp are members of the Tamil Tigers.
They have no connection whatsoever with the LTTE. These are poor young people looking for a better future in the capital, he told BBC Sinhala. We urge the authorities to charge those accused or release them otherwise.
Human Rights Commission
Sri Lankas National Human Rights Commission (SLHRC) has also accused the authorities of failing to comply with their legal obligations. SLHRC Additional Secretary, Nimal Punchihewa, said the authorities are obliged to inform the Commission of any such arrest within 48 hours.
The Emergency Regulations do not empower the security authorities to arrest anybody without a justifiable reason, according to the SLHRC. In many occasions the Supreme Court has ruled that no arrest can be made under the Emergency Regulations without a proper reason Mr. Punchihewa said. it is the duty of the SLHRC to visit the camps and investigate provided we are duly informed," he added. The UPF have warned that the government might soon find these measures counter-productive. It is the opinion of the union leaders that the LTTE do not currently enjoy a strong support among the Up Country Tamils. There is strong possibility that Tamils youths of Indian origin soon turn to Tamil Tigers if the current trend continues, human rights activists warned. (Excerpt)
List of detainees from Selvanagar army camp in
Trincomalee, transferred to Boossa prison
(February 2007)
No. Full name Age Name of Village
1. Ganeshan Krishnadasan 16 Bharatipuram, Kiliveddy
2. Sivarasa Ruban 20 Pallikudiyirippu
3. Pakiarasa Ilangeswaran 23 Pallikudiyirippu
4. Thurainayagam Satyanandan 26 Srinivasapuram, Thopur
5. Kanagasuriyam Ponalingam 28 Srinivasapuram, Thopur
6. Kaliappan Mahendran 30 Thopur
7. Krsihnapillai Sivanandan 30 Pallikudiyirippu
8. Chandrasekeran Mathavarasa 33 Sivapuram, Kiliveddy
9. Velipillai Sivapalan 33 Srinivasapuram, Thopur
10. Thangarasa Mathialahan 34 Srinivasapuram, Thopur
11. Velayutham Sivanandan 35 Srinivasapuram, Thopur
12. Kathirgamathambi Singarasa 35 Thopur
13. Velayutham Navaratnam 37 Srinivasapuram, Thopur
14. Gunaselvam Somasunderam 38 Srinivasapuram, Thopur
15. K Kalikutti Kaththamuttu 40 Srinivasapuram, Thopur
(There are about 300 Tamil detainees are in Boosa prison - (Refer to page 66)
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Press Freedom and Freedom of Expression
Reporters without Borders - Reporters Sans Frontires - RSF
(Sri Lanka - Annual report 2007)
The resumption of the civil war had dramatic consequences for Sri Lankan journalists and in particular the Tamils. Seven media workers were killed in 2006. Pro-government militia (predators of press freedom) and occasionally the army have attacked the press which they accuse of supporting Tamil nationalism. On the other side, the Tiger Tamils threatened those who oppose their political position.
The escalation of the conflict pitting the army against the Tiger Tamils (LTTE) forced scores of Tamil journalists into silence or hiding. Most correspondents for Tamil media in the east of the country no longer have their by-line on their reports for fear of reprisals. Investigative journalism is dead in the Tamil media and everyone is self-censoring, said the editor of one media, himself a target of intimidation. The war against the Tamil press has reached the most respected and influential journalists. In August, the news editor of privately-owned radio Sooriyan, Nadarajah Guruparan, was kidnapped and held for a day by unknown hostage-takes who threatened him with reprisals. Then, in November, the editor of the Shakthi television was threatened with death after giving extensive coverage to the assassination of a Tamil parliamentarian.
Three journalists and four media assistants were killed in 2006. No suspects have so far been arrested. In January, Subramaniyam Sugirdharajan, correspondent for the Tamil daily Sudar Oli in Trincomalee, eastern Nepal, was murdered the day after writing an article about excesses committed by pro-government paramilitary groups in his region. In July, the independent Sinhala journalist Sampath Lakmal was found dead in Colombo. The following month, Sinnathamby Sivamaharajah, politician and editor of a Tamil nationalist newspaper was shot dead at his home in Jaffna.
There is total impunity for these killers in Sri Lanka. Investigations into murders of journalists, including that of Dharmeratnam Sivaram, editor of the news website Tamilnet and editorialist on the Daily Mirror, killed in 2005, have been blocked by the authorities. The suspects - militants in pro-government Tamil militia - have never been troubled by the police, even though some of them were clearly identified by the investigators. For fear of being next on the list of journalists killed, many have stopped working as journalists or have fled the country. In December, photographer Auruddha Lokuhapuarachchi of Reuter's news agency sought refuge in India after being threatened for his coverage of the plight of Tamil residents in the east and north of the country. A few days earlier, Sinhala journalist Rohitha Bashana Abeywardena, fled to Europe to escape threats.
The army attacked media accused of relaying Tiger Tamil propaganda, which they termed terrorist. In October, the studios of Voice of Tigers radio near Kilinochchi, in an LTTE-controlled area was hit and destroyed by air strikes injuring two employees. The military imposed new restrictions on the movements of the press reporting from the field. As a result, the army and the LTTE prevented reporters from reaching the site of a battle around Muttur, in August. In November, officers summoned newspaper managers in Jaffna and ordered them not to publish news coming from the Tamil Tigers.
The daily Uthayan, published in Jaffna had three employees killed in 2006. Its offices came under murderous attack on 2 May, eve of World Press Freedom Day, celebrated by UNESCO in Colombo on 3 May. Armed men believed to be pro-government militia sprayed its offices with machine-gun fire, killing two staff members, the day after it carried a cartoon of Douglas Devananda, leader of the Eelam Peoples Democratic Party (EPDP), a member of the ruling coalition. A few weeks later, a newspaper vendor selling the daily was killed by soldiers in the streets of Jaffna. In August, armed men threatened fresh reprisals if the paper published a statement from striking students, and then set fire to its presses. At the end of the year, soldiers blocked its news print supply. Tamil media also suffered serious interference with distribution in the east of the country. Distributors on several occasions were forced to stop selling some papers in the face of death threats from pro-government militia headed by Colonel Karuna. These were Virakesari, Thinakural and Sudar Oli. The state-run Tamil newspaper Thinakaran was not interfered with however.
Under strong press criticism, President Mahinda Rajapakse and his government stepped up their control over state-run media. At least two journalists, including Rajpal Abenayaka, editor of the government weekly Sunday Observer, were removed from their posts after publishing news seen as too independent. Two state radio programmes were also pulled because they reported on the ethnic conflict in outspoken terms. The government in November also used a 1966 law on good social behaviour to block Raja FM, supposedly broadcasting shocking programmes about sexuality.
Finally, hate campaigns were launched in extremist Singhalese press, particularly those linked to the nationalist JVP party, against journalists and non-governmental organisations accused of supporting the Tamil Tigers. Anger was unleashed online, where independent media were regularly threatened by supporters or opponents of the Tamil Tigers. The Tamil and Sinhala services of the BBC World Service were successively attacked by both camps.
http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=20798
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Arrest of Director of publishing house in Sri Lanka!
26 February 2007 –
Today at 10pm Sri Lankan time, officers from the Terrorist Investigation
Division (TID) arrested Dushantha Basnayake a director of Standard Newspapers
Private Limited (SNPL) in Colombo. Standard Newspapers print the popular
Sinhala weekly Mawbima(motherland), a newspaper that has been under severe
attack from the President Mahinda Rajapakse.
The TID officers who arrived at around 6pm (Sri Lanka time) had interrogated
Mr. Dushantha Basnayake at his office for nearly four hours, when a phone call
from a top Defence Ministry official precipitated his arrest. Mr. Basnayake,
(40) a Sinhalese family man with two children, is well known within the
business circles in Sri Lanka. Last Saturday (24th Feb.,) the president Rajapakse
and his brother Gotabaya Rajapakse (Defence Secretary) along with other
government politicians in a live TV broadcast made an attack of unprecedented
intensity on the Mawbima Newspaper and its owner Tiran Alles for criticising
the government policies. Under government instructions all state and private TV
channels were compelled to broadcast this attack on the Mawbima. This is the
second time that this newspaper had been publicly attacked by the president.
Female journalist Mawnasamy Parameshawaree
detained for another 90 days
The Free Media Movement (FMM)
24 January 2007 - The Free Media Movement (FMM) is deeply concerned and vigorously condemns the continuous custody of Mawnasamy Parameshwaree (23), a female freelance journalist working for the weekly Sinhala Newspaper Mawbima (www.mawbima.lk), who is in police custody for 60 days without any charges against her. After producing her in Court on 23rd January , we note that Terrorist Investigation Division (TID) obtained an extension to her detention order for another 90 days.
Belonging to the Up-Country Tamil community in Sri Lanka, Parameshwarees beat was reporting issues related to Tamil community and disappearances in Colombo. So far around 50 Tamil persons have disappeared in Colombo and dozens of more killed. She is single and stayed in a rented room in Dehiwala, South of Colombo. Her parents live in more than 100 km away from Colombo in Gampola.
She was arrested on 21st November 2006 and is held, without any charges against her, at the TID office in Colombo ever since. No investigating officer has questioned her for the last few weeks, although the TID asked for more time to complete the investigations at the court yesterday.
Lawyers representing her are allowed to visit her for the first time now in detention and there are moves underway to file a fundamental rights petition to the Supreme Court asking for her immediate release and compensation.
We regrettably note that some Colombo based Sinhala newspapers published inflammatory lead stories after she was arrested stating that a large number of explosives were recovered after questioning her and another female arrested alongside her. All those stories proved completely false, implanted into the media by interested parties as a justification to keep her imprisoned indefinitely.
We note that at a time when the media in Sri Lanka is under severe pressure to conform to the edicts of those opposed to free media and the freedom of expression, the continued detention of Parameshwaree is deeply disturbing and is an example of the flagrant violation of fundamental rights in an increasingly militaristic state.
Given that no charges have been made against her and that investigations conducted to date have failed to establish any links between her and terrorist activity of any kind, we strongly urge the Government to intervene to facilitate her immediate release and ensure adequate redress.
The FMM underscores the importance of human rights and media freedom in a democracy, and appeals to the media and all other democratic stakeholders to pressure the Government to strengthen both at a time when they are in danger of disappearing altogether in Sri Lanka.
Newspaper linked to Sri Lanka`s Foreign Minister raided
Zeenews - Colombo, 19 Jan 2007 - Sri Lanka's tax authorities have raided a newspaper office linked to the island's Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera, the state-run Daily News said Friday.
The paper said the Sinhalese-language Maubima (Motherland) newspaper was
visited by tax officials who removed several files for investigations.
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The raid was also carried out at two other offices where the registered owner of the newspaper, Tiran Alles, had business interests, the report said.
Alles is also the chairman of the airport, which is under Samaraweera who is
also the Minister of Ports and Aviation.
The tax raid followed serious differences between President Mahinda Rajapakse
and Samaraweera over the appointment of the top bureaucrat to run the Ministry
of Foreign Affairs.
Rajapakse vetoed the
minister's nominee, Sri Lanka's current Ambassador to New Delhi Romesh
Jayasinghe, and instead appointed Palitha Kohona, a Sri Lanka-born Australian,
as Foreign Secretary last week. (http://www.zeenews.com)
Harassment of "Mawbima" Weekly
The Free Media Movement
19 January 2007 - It was reported in newspapers today that officials of the income tax department visited the offices of the newspapers "Mawbima" and "The Sunday Standard", purportedly to look into income tax issues. The same officials also visited two other commercial enterprises owned by the owner of "Mawbima". FMM was informed that the officials seized files containing details regarding advertising clients of both newspapers.
FMM would like to express its concern over the possibility that these acts are aimed at intimidating the two newspapers in question. Such an interpretation is quite plausible, especially given the repressive media environment in present-day Sri Lanka. FMM also notes that high government officials recently have expressed dissatisfaction towards "Mawbima" and "The Sunday Standard".
While cognizant of the powers of the state to ensure the fiscal accountability of commercial enterprises as well as of media establishments, FMM nevertheless urges the government not to take any measures that, in effect, might instil fear and apprehension regarding the status of these newspapers among journalists and employees of both.
FMM also reiterates the need for a united response by the media community to the overt and covert attempts to strangle the development of free media in Sri Lanka.
Journalist reported missing in Jaffna
Press Release 16/02/2007 - Subramaniam Ramachandran (37) father of two, working as Vadamaratchi correspondent for Yarl Thinakkural and Valampuri since 2001 has gone missing according to FMM contacts in Jaffna. Yarl Thinakkural and Valampuri are two dailies published in war ravaged northern peninsula Jaffna.
He is reported missing since 15th evening February 2007.
FMM is afraid that his life maybe in danger as retaliatory killings and abductions are reported in Jaffna almost daily basis.
Ramachandran as usual has left his private tutorial situated in Arasadi, Karavetti in Nelliyadi within the Vadamaratchi sector of Jaffna peninsula around 6.30pm to his home in Thunaallai, Karavetti, which is 1km away from the Tutorial. He has not reached his home that evening. Vadamaratchi sector came under dusk to dawn curfew recently from 6.00pm to 6.00 am.
His father has made a complaint at the Nelliyadi police station. The police told FMM that they have received the complaint and are investigating the incident.
Since January 2005, 802 persons have disappeared in Jaffna peninsula, according to human rights groups. 66 persons who surrendered to Jaffna office of the human rights commission are in prison voluntarily in the fear of being abducted and killed. In February alone 15 peopled have been gunned down by unknown gunmen and 9 persons have been abducted.
Free Media Movement appeals to whoever responsible for this disappearances release or handover him to police authorities immediately. FMM urge the government to look into this matter as it is government duty to protect the lives of its people. (Free Media Movement, www.freemediasrilanka.org)
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Sri Lankan state crackdown on Independent Media
World Peoples Resistance Movement (WPRM) – Sri Lanka
12 February 2007 - The
Sri Lankan state under President Mahindra Rajapakse is trying to destroy the
Sri Lankan working class movement - the only movement that has the capability
of bringing peace to Sri Lanka. As the war against the Liberation Tigers of
Tamil Elam (LTTE) has intensified, Rajapakse has reintroduced the notorious
Prevention and Prohibition of Terrorist Activities bill – a bill that
allows for the indefinite detention of suspects without trial. President
Rajapakse and the army chief Lieutenant General Sarath Fonseka spoke to the
media; the media were warned not to criticize the war as it will effect the
morale of the of the army – there is a de facto censorship in the Sri
Lankan media about the war. The new bill aims at silencing all those who think
differently to Rajapakse, and scaring and browbeating the Left. These are the
suspects of the Prevention and Prohibition of Terrorist Activities bill:
journalists, Independent media activists, trade unionists, Left wing activists
and anyone else who does not believe that Rajapakses way can bring peace to
Sri Lanka.
This new law has allowed the Sri Lankan state to harass and intimidate the
Independent media; there have been killings, kidnappings, and death threats.
These are aimed at identifying anyone who questions Rajapakses policies as
accomplices of the LTTE terrorists. To anybody who follows the international
news, this kind of terrorism bill – intimidation, detention without
trial etc – will sound familiar. There is a family resemblance between
this bill and similar legislation that has been passed in the freedom loving countries of the West.
There is little doubt that these attacks and abductions on journalists and Left wing activists is being carried out by the security and army intelligence services, and chauvinist paramilitary thugs working with the state. Here are some incidents:
* Subramaniyam Sugeedharajan, a correspondent for the Tamil daily Sudar Oli in Trincomalee, was killed in January last year. He was murdered a day after he wrote an article about the attacks by paramilitary groups linked to the military in the Eastern District.
* On the evening of May 2, a gang of thugs armed with T-56 automatic rifles stormed the Uthayan office in Jaffna and shot dead the marketing manager, Bastian George Sagayathas, and circulation supervisor, S. Ranjith. Two other employees were injured in the attack. Several weeks later, the Uthayan newspaper distributor was shot dead.
* Sampath Lakmal, a correspondent for Sathdina, was abducted on his way from home in the Colombo suburbs of Boralasgamuwa on June 30. His body was found the next day in Dehiwala. He was shot in the head. Police questioned an intelligence officer and a Sri Lankan army soldier about the murder. They were released.
* Last August, a senior news programmer with Sooriyan FM, Nadarajah Kuruparan, was kidnapped. His abductors released him 24 hours later; they warned him to halt a program that exposed the abuse of the countrys Tamil minority.
* On August 21 Sinnathamby Sivamaharajah, editor and the managing director of the Tamil-language daily Namathu Eelanadu (Our Eelam Nation) was shot dead by gunmen at his home at Tellippalai, 15 kilometres from Jaffna.
* On November 23, Mawnasamy Parameswaree, a journalist with Mawbima, was arrested. To date she has been detained by the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) without charge. According to the Free Media Movement (FMM), the CID officials have denied access to her by journalists. She was presented before a court on January 23 and her detention was extended for another 90 days. She told the court that she had been threatened by Special Task Force (STF) officers and told to stop journalism. Parameswari has now filed a fundamental rights case against her arrest and detention.
* Last month Kumaravel Gajan, a proof reader for the Tamil newspaper Thinakkural, was arrested in Colombo. He is still being detained at the Boossa detention camp in the southern district of Galle. The newspapers management has tried without success to get him released.
* On January 9, a group of Sri Lankan army personnel stormed the offices of Thinakkural, Uthayan and Valampuri newspapers in Jaffna and warned staff not to publish reports by the Jaffna University Student Union. Students in Jaffna have repeatedly protested against the abduction of young people.
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* On January 15, K.C. Saranga, a programmer for Derana TV, was severely beaten by a mob in the Colombo suburb of Dehiwela. His video footage relating to a recent operation by STF commandos in Eastern Province was seized in the course of the attack.
* Three journalists have fled the country after receiving death threats. They are Anuruddha Lokuhapuarachchi, a Reuters photographer and journalist; Rohitha Bhasana Abeywardana, a freelance reporter, and S. Rajkumar, president of the Sri Lanka Tamil Media Alliance and the Colombo news manager of the UK-based Theepam TV.
* The Karuna group, an armed militia led by V. Muralitharan or Karuna who split from the LTTE in 2004, has banned the distribution of the Colombo-based Tamil newspapers Veerakerari and Thinakkural in the eastern district of Batticaloa. Karunas outfit works with the Sri Lankan military.
* On the 5th of February 2007, the Sri Lankan army intelligence service kidnapped Mr. M. L. Senaviratna, Mr. Nimal Serasinghe, and Mr. Sisira. Mr M. L. Senaviratna and Mr Nimal Serasinghe were abducted at work; Mr Sisira was abducted at home. Mr. Senaviratna and Mr. Sisira are Trade Union activists; Mr. Serasinghe is the owner of a typesetting shop and is a Left wing activist. There was no warning; they were not read their rights, there was no trial; they were simply taken away. A confession was forced; they were forced to confess their involvement with the recent bombings in the south of Sri Lanka; a confession without a trial
There is a great deal of official corruption in Sri Lanka; the big media, the
big politicians, and the big business are on the same side and always support
each other. There is a system of political oligarchy, for example, two of
Rajapakses brothers are also in the government, one is a special advisor and
another is the defence minister. There is growing poverty and anger; anger at
the war, at the corruption of the politicians, at the family oligarchies and at
the lack of any progress after so long. The current regime led by Rajapakse and
his fellow travellers the JHU, the JVP, and many UNP heavyweights have no
answers whatsoever – they are a part of the problem.
Over 200 journalists and trade unionists demonstrated at the Fort Railway
Station in central Colombo last Tuesday to condemn the growing harassment and
intimidation of the media and Left wing activists. Many people did not take
part because they fear for their safety, and that of their families.
We ask for international solidarity, for all those concerned to organise
protests outside the Sri Lankan embassy and to distribute this short article to
anybody who is concerned. The reaction of the Rajapakse regime and its fellow
travellers are typical of many third world regimes. This intimidation is
supposed to show the strength of their regime; but it actually shows its
weakness. This kind of legislation and these kind of actions have made it is
increasingly clear to many people in Sri Lanka and all over the world that
mainstream politics is bankrupt.
12 Feb. 07 Colombo
World Peoples Resistance Movement (WPRM) – Sri Lanka.
Open letter to the donor
countries ambassadors
regarding the situation of the media in Jaffna
(Reporters without Borders)
26 January 2007
Your Excellency,
We are writing to express our serious concern at the acute shortage of newsprint and printing ink in Jaffna and the implications this has on the ability of people in that region of Sri Lanka to access the news.
Reportedly there has been no road connection between Colombo and Jaffna since the main A9 road was closed last year due to heavy fighting. The commissioner for essential services has so far refused to load newsprint and ink onto the few ships carrying supplies to Jaffna.
This has resulted in severe hardships for newspapers in Jaffna. According to our reports, all three newspapers in the city now print only four pages and print runs have also been drastically reduced. For example, Uthayan, Jaffnas best-selling paper, used to print 12 pages and sell about 20,000 copies, whereas it now prints only 7,500 copies of four pages and will reportedly soon have to reduce further to just two pages. Uthayan may have to close in about one month if it does not receive supplies of newsprint and ink.
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We respectfully remind you that there are no radio or TV stations in Jaffna and the only way people in the region are able to get news is through newspapers.
As you will be aware, access to information is a key element in ensuring stability, and the lack thereof may lead to exaggerated rumour replacing accountable journalism as the main source of news for the local population, thereby fuelling instability and violence.
We respectfully call on you to do everything possible to enable the delivery of newsprint to Jaffna so that the citys publications are able to carry out their vital activity of informing the public. In particular, we request that newsprint be included among the supplies carried into Jaffna.
We look forward to hearing from you at your earliest convenience.
Yours Sincerely, Members of the International Press Freedom and Freedom of Expression Mission to Sri Lanka
Those organisations associated with the International Mission include: ARTICLE 19 Free Voice International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) International Media Support (IMS) International Press Institute (IPI) International News Safety Institute (INSI) Reporters Without Borders (RSF) South Asia Press Commission (SAPC) United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) World Association of Community Radio Broadcasters (AMARC) World Association of Newspapers (WAN) World Press Freedom Committee (WPFC). (http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=20666)
Journalists urged to unite
Government told to renounce war against media
The Morning Leader – 10 January 2007
An opposition legislator yesterday (9) called upon the government to renounce its war against media practitioners and called upon all journalists to be united as not just one editor, but all journalists in Sri Lanka were under some form of threat.
Kurunegala District UNP Parliamentarian, Dayasiri Jayasekera told parliament yesterday that recently there was an imminent threat of arrest to Editor, The Sunday Leader, Lasantha Wickrematunge that was averted due to an overwhelming display of solidarity by journalists against such a move.
Jayasekera alleged that the new PTA regulations were being used against not only the media, but soon would be used to curb civil liberties and to rule with an iron hand.
Referring to the threat of arrest to Wickrematunge, the MP said that the background was created by the government newspaper Daily News, which carried a news item under the heading "Sleeping with the enemy" to create the backdrop for a possible arrest.
He said that a government unable to deal with criticism and exposures was now resorting to silencing journalists, and added that the government appears to have its own definition of who a traitor is, a title liberally conferred on those who disagreed with government thinking.
He noted that a grave threat existed to media freedom in general while nobody should be lulled in to the false belief that journalists are safe in Sri Lanka.
"A series of prominent journalists have been killed in the recent past and investigations have not revealed anything. If a journalist fails to toe the line, he will be branded a traitor with the help of government media to create the background for the next step which only the government would know," he claimed.
Journalists flee country due to security fears and death threats
The Morning Leader – 10 January 2007
Journalists have been forced to flee the country due to security fears and death threats, the Free Media Movement (FMM) and the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) said yesterday.
They said at least three journalists — Anuruddha Lokuhapuaarachi, a senior photographer for Reuters, Rohitha Bashana Abeywardane, a freelance reporter, S. Rajkumar and President of the Sri Lanka Tamil Media Alliance (SLMTA) and Colombo News Manager of the UK-based Theepam TV — have fled the country due to death threats.
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"Their return is uncertain due to the deteriorating security situation in the country. Furthermore, fears of the Emergency (Prevention and Prohibition of Terrorism and Specified Terrorist Activities) Regulations, enacted last month, would be used to restrict freedom of expression are proving to be valid with new reports of arrests and the interrogation of journalists under these laws," the FMM said.
"Restricted access to information, self-censorship, editorial interference and intimidation are all enemies of press freedom, and this is only exacerbating the already fragile environment in Sri Lanka," IFJ President Christopher Warren said.
The FMM has been campaigning for wider access and freedom of movement for journalists since restrictions were imposed unofficial and now with the re-entry of the PTA. "But we cannot even get a meeting with the minister to discuss these matters, what more guarantees do we need?" Sunanda Deshapriya of the FMM said.
Investigations into the murders and attacks on journalists have remained inconclusive and Deshapriya said that the government appears reluctant to talk publicly on the investigations.
Several media organisations have also held continuous discussions among them on how to deal with the prevalent security situation in the country.
"The media has to come together, leave aside petty personal issues, and face this together. The media cannot allow personal agendas to ruin the publics right to information," Deshapriya said.
"When journalists are unable to provide on-the-ground reports, their ability to report accurately and objectively is compromised," Warren said.
"With the overwhelming amount of rumour and propaganda coming from all sides of the conflict, the restriction on journalists access is only resulting in an uninformed public," Warren said.
Media Ministry Secretary, W. Ganegala however said that the Ministry has not been informed of any journalist leaving the country due to threats.
"I have no information about any such person. Nobody has told me. I am available here and they can come and discuss these issues with me any time," he said. Ganegala also said that the government needed to be aware of the facts before they deal with security of individual journalists.
Mystery over arrest of three suspects
The Sunday Times - 11 February 2007
A journalist, a trade union activist and a graphic designer were reported abducted on Sunday night.
Around midnight that day President Mahinda Rajapaksa was woken up to be told by a Minister that the trio had gone missing causing serious anxiety to his family and friends. The President immediately rang Police Chief, Victor Perera and ordered an investigation. The latter in turn was waking up other senior Police officers in search of the missing trio.
The next day there were protests over what was reported as the latest abduction. It took more than three days for the authorities to make public that the trio had been arrested by the Army (under the ongoing Emergency Regulations) over an alleged conspiracy that they had links with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).
No explanation, however, was offered why a state investigating arm did not carry out the arrest in keeping with normal procedures.
Defence Spokesman Keheliya Rambukwella told a news conference at the Media Centre for National Security (MCNS) that Lalith Seneviratne, who had worked for Hiru newspaper and now attached to "Akuna," the official organ of the Railway Services Trade Union, Nihal Senasinghe, a journalist and Sisira Priyankara, graphic artist for the newspaper (and treasurer of the union) had been arrested for engaging in subversive activity.
Commenting on the case, the Free Media Movement said in a statement on Friday "the manner in which the information regarding the 'terrorist' linkages of the three trade unionists was made public also raises some concerns regarding the potential for stifling opposition and media freedom in the interests of national security."
It said that arresting authorities should follow the due process at all times and that, for instance, family members should be informed about the arresting authority and the place of detention of their relative.
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Akuna newspaper staff abducted
BBC Sinhala com, 6/2/2007 - Three activists of the Sri Lanka Railway trade unions and its publication 'Akuna' are reported to have been abducted on Monday. Free Media Movement(FMM) says it has received complaints that the publisher of the news paper M. A Sisira Priyankara (38), lay out designer M. L. Senaviratna (35) and another activist Nihal Serasinghe (40) were abducted from suburbs of Colombo.
Sisira Priyankara is reported missing since 11.00 pm on 5 January 2007 after he went out of the working place to answer a telephone call. Nihal Serasinghe, father of two(1 and 6 years age) has been abducted on the same day around 3.00pm. says FMM in statement.
Lalith Seneviratne, former journalist attached to Hiru newspaper has been abducted by a group of people identifying themselves as officers from the Criminal Investigation Department (CID), his wife, P. Champika said.
"A group of seven people took him away before I came from the kitchen to enquire who were in the house. I saw a weapon in one person's hand", she said.
Champika said she has logged a complaint with the Athurugiriya police.
The complaints were also made by Sri Lanka Railway trade union about Sisira Priyankara's abduction, Movement to protect Democratic Rights logged a complaint on Nihal Serasinghe's abduction FMM said.
Saying all three arrests has been made illegally the FMM specifies that if there is any inquiry to be made against these persons it should be made legally.
The FMM urges the government to grant life security to the these persons and to present them in front of the court if they have been arrested.
FMM condemns these illegal arrests without conditions and urges for an immediate inquiry into the incident.
The FMM also expresses its concerns that if the government is assisting such illegal events, that the democratic safety of the civilians will lead to a high risk.
IPI Public Statements
Print and Ink Shortage in Jaffna Undermines Press Freedom
Members of the International Press Freedom and Freedom of Expression Mission to Sri Lanka
26 January 2007 - On 26 January, the International Press Institute together with other members of the International Press Freedom and Freedom of Expression Mission to Sri Lanka (listed below) issued a joint letter of concern to the representatives of the Sri Lankas donor countries, who will be meeting on 29 - 30 January in Galle, Sri Lanka.
The letter expresses concern about the situation for newspapers in the Northern Sri Lankan city of Jaffna that are suffering from an acute shortage of newsprint and printing ink. The letter urges the donor countries to intervene to enable the delivery of newsprint to the region, so that the citys publications are able to carry out their vital activity of informing the public.
The International Mission to Sri Lanka has been informed that, ever since the main road connecting Jaffna to Colombo was closed last year due to heavy fighting, the commissioner for essential services has refused to load newsprint and ink onto the few ships carrying supplies to Jaffna.
As a consequence, all three newspapers in the city now print only four pages and print runs have also been drastically reduced, resulting in a shortage of information for the people in the region. Furthermore, since there are no radio or TV stations in Jaffna, newspapers are the only source of news.
Commenting on the situation in Jaffna, IPI Director Johann Fritz said, "It is essential to the free flow of information in the Jaffna region that the newspapers receive newsprint and ink to print their normal editions."
"The failure to deliver these essential goods risks creating instability and fear in the region because of a lack of information about the ongoing fighting," Fritz added.
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Sri Lankan journalists protest killings, unofficial censorship
Zee News, Colombo, 23 January 2007 - Sri Lankan journalists today protested attacks against them and the unofficial censorship imposed by the government as the island nation was regarded the most dangerous place for reporters in Asia after Pakistan.
Dozens of media personnel carried placards and staged a peaceful rally (march)
outside the Colombo fort railway station where anti-riot squads and heavily
armed troops were deployed.
"Hands off journalists," said a banner carried by a reporter.
"Report card 2006-2007: eight journalists killed," said another
placard.
A spokesman for the protestors said the government was enforcing an unofficial
censorship on the media personnel.
In its 2006 review, the Paris-based media watch dog, Reporters without Borders,
said the fighting between Sri Lankan troops and Tamil Tiger rebels was having a
major fallout on the freedom of the media in the island nation.
"The dormant war between security forces and the Tamil Tigers (LTTE) has
had harmful consequences for the safety of journalists, particularly
Tamils," it said.
Journalists from the majority Sinhalese community too have been either killed,
beaten or intimidated for their coverage of the conflict.
"Murders, arrests, threats and bombings have again become the daily lot
for many reporters, particularly in the north and east of the country," it
added.
There is no official censorship in the country, but a newspaper here recently
said its defence columnist was under pressure to follow self-censorship.
Media organisations have described Sri Lanka as one of the most dangerous
places for journalists in South Asia next to Pakistan where more journalists
have been killed.
IFJ demands full investigation into death threats against journalists
18 January 2007, Brussels - The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) has called for a full investigation into death threats made against Free Media Movement (FMM) convener Sunanda Deshapriya, leading journalist Bandula Padmakumara, The Sunday Leader editor Lasantha Wikramatunga, and Ravaya editor Victor Ivan, as well as politicians, including the Opposition Leader, and prominent business figures.
According to local reports, an international group sent death threats through a website, labelling the group "traitors".
"Publicly labelling individuals as traitors is a dangerous business, particularly during these volatile times," IFJ President Christopher Warren said.
"These threats must be taken seriously, and adequate action has to be taken by authorities to ensure no harm comes to the group," Warren said.
"This is not the first time threats, hate speech and public identification have been used to try and bully the media into submission. The government must launch an immediate investigation into this incident and send a strong message that this cowardly behaviour will not be tolerated."
According to IFJ affiliate the FMM, seven media workers, including two journalists, were killed last year, and this latest episode is only further evidence of the terrifying working environment Sri Lankan journalists face.
"We demand that the government and all parties involved put an end to this atmosphere of fear and violent retaliation that has engulfed Sri Lanka," Warren said.
The IFJ represents over 500,000 journalists in more than 115 countries.
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Condemnation of attack against journalist
The Free Media Movement
17 January 2007 - The Free Media Movement (FMM) condemns the assault on journalist K.C. Saranga by an unknown group of thugs on 15th January 2007 (Monday night) in Dehiwala. Mr. Saranga was on his way home and the thugs were waiting for him by the wayside.
Mr. Saranga is the producer of "Derana Aruna" - the breakfast show of Derana TV. He was severely assaulted both physically and verbally, with pointed comments allegedly being made against Derana and his show. The group of thugs took his Media ID issued by the Information Department and some videocassettes belonging to the TV station. Mr Saranga has made a complaint to the Dehiwala police and to the IGP Victor Perera.
This is yet another incident demonstrating the growing intolerance and impunity against free media & journalists in Sri Lanka. Death threats, verbal hate-attacks, physical assaults, official and unofficial restrictions and censorship are on the rise and consequently, media freedom and the security of journalists on the decline.
The only way the government can demonstrate its concern about the rising threat to media freedom is by investigating these assaults urgently, bringing the culprits to book. Accordingly, urging the government to make the progress of the inquiries public and transparent, we hold the Dehiwela police responsible for a quick and impartial investigation on Mr. Sarangas assault.
Concerns about the dire situation of media in Sri Lanka
The Free Media Movement
12 January 2007 - Indications of the growing deterioration of media freedom and a culture of impunity were evident in media reports yesterday.
The FMM notes, with deep concern, news reports on the alleged ban by the Karuna paramilitary group on the sale of "Thinakkural" and "Sudar Oli" newspapers, as reported in the "Daily Mirror". This is not the first time the FMM has expressed its concern over the impossible situation facing media and journalists in the North and East of Sri Lanka. In October 2006, the FMM condemned the burning of 10,000 copies of the Tamil daily "Virakesari" and of "Metro News" near Kiran Regional Secretariat in Batticaloa.
The situation is dire - journalists find it increasingly difficult to do their work, there is scant regard for media freedom and freedom of expression on the ground and, despite assurances by various armed groups including the Sri Lankan Army, threats, harassment and intimidation against the media increase daily.
Accordingly, we are concerned and unequivocally condemn the alleged actions of Sri Lankan Army soldiers who forcibly entered the "Thinakkural", "Uthayan" and "Valampuri" newspaper offices and asked editorial staff to desist from publishing a press communiqu from the Jaffna University Students Union, as reported in TamilNet today (see: http://www.tamilnet.com/art.html?catid=13&artid=20883 ).
Recalling our statements on 1 September 2006, expressing our dismay at the Army's actions against the "Yal Thinakkural", and on 7 November 2006, on the threats made by the commander of Army Brigade 512 in Jaffna against the newspapers "Uthayan", "Walampuri", and "Yal Thinakkural" prohibiting them from publishing any news critical of the military in Jaffna, we note with great disappointment that the situation has only turned worse for journalists in these news organizations.
Indicative of growing impunity and the erosion of justice, rights and the rule of law in Sri Lanka, the FMM further registers its disquiet over the traumatic intrusion into the home of Indika Maraingha, a news editor at Sri Lanka Rupavahini Corporation, which resulted in the abuse of a domestic aide and injuries to his infant son. While it is not clear at the time of writing why this dastardly act was committed, that it was directed against a journalist is worrying. The FMM urges the authorities to bring the culprits to justice through an open and brisk investigation.
FMM calls upon all democratic forces to exert maximum pressure upon the Sri Lankan government, all political parties, the LTTE, the Karuna faction and other groups involved in the conflict, to bring to justice all those responsible for attacks against the media and help strengthen fundamental rights, including media freedom and the rule of law.
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"Thinakkural" Journalist M. A. M. Nilam threatened by Minister Fowzie
The Free Media Movement
10 January 2007 - The FMM is concerned over reports it has received that Minister for Transport A.H.M. Fowzie threatened journalist M.A.M. Nilam over coverage related to the minister and his son. This incident took place in front of other journalists after a press conference on 9 January 2007 held at the minister's office.
According to Mr. Nilam, the minister told him that his limbs would be broken if he persists in writing on allegations of corruption related to his Hajji pilgrimage. There have been several newspaper reports on alleged corruption in organizing the pilgrimage involving the minister and his son.
FMM decries the minister's attitude toward the responsibility of the press to hold politicians accountable for their actions, and condemns the threat directed against Mr. Nilam. In a situation where journalists are already under immense pressure resulting from threats of violence directed against them, verbal threats of this nature may deter journalists from acting as watchdogs of democracy.
Mr. Nilam has 35 years of journalism behind him, is a senior reporter for the "Thinakkural" daily newspaper and also serves as the vice-president of Sri Lanka Muslim Media Forum (SLMMF).
FMM strongly urges the minister to respect the role of the media and to engage critically the allegations directed against him through the media in a manner more befitting his role as a public servant holding high political office. FMM invites the minister to discuss this issue with journalists' organizations in order to clarify matters.
International mission find deteriorating security situation for media
(9 - 11 October 2006)
A delegation representing the International Press Freedom and Freedom of Expression Mission found a "serious deterioration in the security situation" for the media during its 9 to 11 October 2006 fact-finding and advocacy mission in Sri Lanka.
The International Mission aimed to assess the current media situation in light of the escalation of fighting between the government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).
The delegation included two IFEX members - the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) and the International Press Institute (IPI) - along with International Media Support (IMS), the International News Safety Institute (INSI) and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO).
The Free Media Movement (FMM) was among the groups hosting the delegation.
Other IFEX members involved in the International Mission are Reporters Without Borders (Reporters sans frontires, RSF), the World Association of Community Radio Broadcasters (AMARC), the World Association of Newspapers (WAN), and the World Press Freedom Committee (WPFC).
While the International Mission examined the situation of Sinhala- and English-language media, it paid particular attention to the repression of Tamil-language media, which it says have "come under heavy and sustained attack, especially in the areas affected by fighting."
As a result, the free flow of information in the north and east has been restricted.
The International Mission found evidence of threats, abductions and attacks committed by all parties in the conflict, particularly paramilitary and militia groups.
Eight media workers have been killed since 2005. The mission notes that censorship exists, although largely through indirect means. It adds that the "willingness of politicians and others to denounce the media reinforces self-censorship and makes the free expression of opinion a life-threatening activity."
The mission called on the government, security forces, LTTE, political parties and paramilitary and militia groups to implement several recommendations, including: immediately halting all threats, harassment, abductions and attacks against media workers and outlets; investigating the murders of media workers and death threats against them, with the aim of ending impunity for such acts; ending all interference in editorial independence; allowing media full and unhindered access to all areas of the country; and halting the practice of publicly vilifying media workers in a manner likely to endanger their lives and those of their families.
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Journalist's house attacked
11 January 2007, Daily Mirror - A gruesome and dastardly act was committed on a ten-month-old baby boy and the domestic aide of an electronic media journalist yesterday afternoon by a gang of five masked men, while the journalist and his wife were out.
The intruders had threatened the domestic aide and had injured the private parts of the baby before gang raping the aide. The suspects had then ransacked the place and had set fire to some of the important documents and office ware of the journalist before fleeing the house.
Both the baby and the domestic aide had been later admitted to National hospital in a critical condition. Peliyagoda police are conducting the investigations. (Daily Mirror – 11/01/2007)
Assault on Journalists
The Free Media Movement
9 January 2006 - The FMM is disturbed to receive reports that an unruly mob of hundreds of persons who invaded the open stage at Nugegoda, Colombo, around 2.30 pm on 9th January 2007 to disrupt the first public rally of United Peoples Movement assaulted two journalists present at this meeting. United Peoples Movement is an anti-war collation of main opposition parties, rallying around the slogan Against War, Hunger and Oppression.
Two journalists assaulted were Ajith Senavirathan of Lanka E-News and Gananasiri Kottigoda of Haraya monthly and BBC Sinhala Service. The mob has attacked another freelance cameraman who was taking photographs there and confiscated his camera too. All three persons told the FMM that a deputy minister of the government was responsible for the mob attack against them.
FMM condemns this attack and registers its vehement opposition to attacks against journalists covering public events and urgently requests the government to hold an inquiry into the incident.
We are concerned about the lack of police presence at the time of the attack, even though the police had informed the organizers about the possibility of an attack. Noting this incident, the FMM is extremely fearful about the emergence of a dangerous trend of intolerance and forceful suppression of anti-war and pro-peace sentiment in Sri Lanka. We are mindful that the previous months witnessed an increasing number of attacks against public initiatives similar to the rally in Nugegoda. No one, to date, has been indicted for these attacks.
We remind those who wish to oppress democratic dissent that the freedom of association and the freedom of expression are unalienable human rights in a healthy democracy.
We are at a tipping point for democracy in Sri Lanka. If the allegations on reports that a deputy minister in the incumbent government led the mob attack are proved to be accurate, it would be a severe blow to democracy in Sri Lanka. The possibility of mob rule overcoming democratic governance in Sri Lanka is disturbing, leading to urgent concerns about the safety and security of journalists and civil society activists in support of a negotiated settlement to the ethnic conflict.
In this context FMM urges the government to condemn this attack in the strongest terms and to ensure that steps are taken to prevent further acts of this nature in the future in order to safeguard and strengthen democratic governance and media freedom in Sri Lanka.
Shocking violations of journalists rights continue in Sri Lanka
The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ)
6 December 2006 - The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) is disturbed by Sri Lankan journalists continued suffering at the hands of authorities, after two journalists were detained by the military and police assaulted a photojournalist, while another journalist remains in detention under anti-terrorist legislation.
The situation in Sri Lanka continues to deteriorate with these latest press freedom abuses at the hands of authorities, further highlighting the vital need for the Sri Lankan government to intervene and ensure journalists rights are protected, the IFJ President Christopher Warren said.
According to an IFJ affiliate, the Free Media Movement (FMM), two journalists from the weekly Sathdina Sinhala were taken into custody on November 5 by military personnel, while meeting with union leaders of Sri Lanka Telecom HQ, which is situated in a high security zone.
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The FMM reports that the military delivered the journalists, Saman Janaka and Jayasiri Wikramasingha, to a police station where police questioned them for five hours, stripped their camera of film and confiscated photos of a picketing campaign by Telecom employees.
The pair were reportedly only released after their editor, Sri Lal Priyantha, made verbal assurances.
A week earlier, Asoka Fernando, the deputy photo editor of The Sunday Leader, was assaulted and had his camera smashed by police officers at a temple in Pannipitiya on November 28.
The FMM reported that Fernando sustained minor injuries and was detained until the following afternoon by the Maharagama police, on the outskirts of Colombo, after facing Gangodawila magistrates court on a criminal charge.
The FMM said that Fernando photographed clashes between police and civilians inside the temple before police turned on him, beating him and smashing his digital camera, valued at approximately US $1848.
It is a disgraceful situation when a photojournalist is not only prevented from doing his job, but also is physically assaulted by police who are supposed to be there to maintain order, the IFJ President said. Meanwhile, detention continues for Parameswaree Maunasmi, writer for the weekly Mawbima, who was arrested at her home south of Colombo on November 24, according to the FMM.
Local sources said she is being held under anti-terrorist legislation that allows for prolonged detention without charge, and authorities have given no reason for her arrest.
According to local reports, Maunasmi may have been arrested for her work at the paper covering the separatist conflict between the Sri Lankan military and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam rebels.
Considering Sri Lankas recent history of Tamil journalists being unfairly targeted, the IFJ calls for authorities to fully explain their detention of Maunasmi and to expedite their inquiries or release her immediately, Warren said.
It is a deeply concerning sign of a new low in Sri Lanka, where members of the police force and military are using their powers to control and dominate journalists, instead of fulfilling their duty to uphold and protect a free and independent media, the IFJ president said.
The IFJ again calls on the government of Sri Lanka to take swift action to send a message to all parties that the rights and safety of journalists must be respected at all times, Warren said.
The report will be available online at www.ifj-asia.org from May 3.
The Free Media Movement
07 November , 2006 - Deputy Pictures Editor, The Sunday Leader, Asoka Fernando was assaulted and taken into police custody by the Maharagama Police in the outskirts of Colombo on Tuesday afternoon (28).
Fernando sustained minor injuries from the police assault and was released only the following afternoon (29) after being produced before the Gangodawila Magistrate for a purported criminal charge.
Free Media Movement registers its condemnation of this unlawful behaviour of the police offices concerned and violation of Asoka Fernando's rights as a journalist.
Fernando was assaulted along with several villagers at a Buddhist temple in Pannipitiya and was among the only two who were arrested by the police for allegedly aiding a monk to set himself on fire, a charge Fernando has completely refuted in his recorded police statement.
Around 4 pm on 28th November, a group of police personnel has entered the temple premises with some civilians. Fernando has captured, according to Mr. Fernando images of heated exchanges between the police and villagers and policemen breaking a padlock to force open a door.
When police officers about to harass him he showed his media accreditation ID to the Superintend of Police and claimed he had a right to take photographs as an accredited photo-journalist.
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Although police authorities on many occasions have assured journalist organization that media accreditation ID will be respected, disregarding his accreditation police officers present snatched Asoka's digital camera worth Rs. 200,00 and smashed it on the ground. He was assaulted badly by the police soon afterwards and arrested.
This is a clear violation basic human rights and freedom of information rights. FMM request the Inspector General of Police to take disciplinary action against these police personal who assaulted photo-journalist Asoka Fernando and smashed his camera. Police duty is to protect peoples rights not to violate them. FMM would like to reiterate that the duty of the Police is to protect peoples rights and not to violate them.
10,000 copies of Tamil Daily Virakesari burned by Paramilitary group
The Free Media Movement
25 October 2006 - Free Media Movement (FMM) registers its strong condemnation of continuing threats and harassments to Tamil language media in Sri Lanka. On 22nd Monday October 2006 10,000 copies of Tamil Daily Virakesari was burned by a para military group operating in the east of Sri Lanka relevant authorities Virakesari of V told FMM. This is the latest incident of series of killings, harassments and threats directed towards Tamil language media in Sri Lanka.
An armed group of 10-15 men had stopped the private passenger transport bus and a van carrying the copies of Virakesari daily and metro News to be distribution and burned nearly 10,000 copies.
The incident took place near Kiran, Batticaloa, around 3.30 pm. Kiran is in the government controlled territory of Batticaloa.
Karuna Group has political party offices in government controlled areas in the east and in Colombo, and protected by Sri Lankan security forces.
According to Tamil net website " The armed men took away bus driver's hand phone and asked him to collect it at the office of the Karuna group. Three months earlier the Virakesari Agents 'Murugesu & Sons' shop on the Main Street in Batticaloa was burnt down by armed gangs.
Virakesari was the only Tamil language news paper which has been distributed in the east for some time now. Other two Tamil dailies Sudar Oli and Thinakural, were banned in the beginning of the year in Batticaloa and Amparai allegedly by Karuna group. According to Sudaroli management one third of their circulation has dropped due to this ban.
FMM urge the government to take urgent steps to reverse this situation, so that Tamil language news papers will be able to distribute freely and people living in Eastern province of Sri Lanka will have the choice of reading what ever newspaper they like.
IFJ denounces bombing of Voice of Tigers in Sri Lanka
The International Federation of Journalists
October 23, 2006 - The International Federation of Journalists has condemned the bombing of the official radio station of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), the Voice of Tigers (VOT), by the Sri Lankan Air Force in Killinochchi, an LTTE held town in Northern Sri Lanka on October 17.
According to IFJ affiliate, the Free Media Movement (FMM), the attack destroyed the broadcasting towers of the VOT, and injured two workers.
"While the IFJ does not endorse or support the views of any particular media organisation, we maintain that all media should be treated as non-combatants and we strongly denounce the bombing of the VOT," IFJ President Christopher Warren said.
The Media Centre for National Security (MCNS) of the government reportedly said that although the VOT radio tower was not directly targeted, it could have been damaged during air attacks on other LTTE targets.
"An attack on a media outlet, regardless of viewpoint, is an attack on freedom of speech and a serious violation of international law," Warren said.
"The journalists at the VOT are unarmed citizens and thus should not be considered military targets under any circumstances," he said.
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"The IFJ reminds the Sri Lankan government of their absolute obligation under the Geneva Convention to respect the safety of journalists."
The rights of journalists in conflict zones are defined in Article 79 of Protocol Additional to the Geneva Convention, which says that journalists must be treated as civilians and non-combatants.
"This violent attempt to silence the media has endangered the lives of media workers and the IFJ sincerely hopes this does not set a terrible precedent for further targeted attacks on media outlets in Sri Lanka," the IFJ president said.
"The bombing of a media outlet, irrespective of whether it is initiated by the government or the LTTE, will result in the further destruction of media freedom and freedom of expression in Sri Lanka," Warren said.
The IFJ has consistently protested the targeting of media in times of conflict since the 1999 NATO strike on Radio Television Serbia in Belgrade when 16 media staff were killed.
* * * * *
Internally Displaced People
ICRC News - 7/02/2007
ICRC Bulletin No. 10 / 2007
On 13 December the first of some 30,000 internally displaced people sheltering near the
Vakarai hospital began moving south towards Batticaloa, either on foot or in
vehicles such as tractors and trucks. The last group of 5,000 left the
area on 19
January. Many of these people, physically and mentally exhausted, were able to
bring with them little more than the clothes on their backs and are in need of
temporary shelter, water, sanitation, food and basic household items. The ICRC
is providing them with immediate assistance, in cooperation with the local
authorities.
Since the beginning of the crisis, the ICRC has set up four of the largest
camps for displaced people in Batticaloa district – two in Kiran, one in
Alankulam and the fourth in Mavadivembu. So far, it has made available over
1,500 family-sized tents and semi-permanent housing structures and given another 1,000
tents to partner organizations for distribution in the same area under the supervision of
the Sri Lanka Red Cross Society, thus providing about 16,000 people with
shelter.
It has also installed over 120 emergency toilets and provided bathing and
washing facilities. Early on in the crisis, the ICRC distributed about five
litres of drinking water per day to some 5,000 individuals. In the past few weeks, it has
continued to supply water for about 2,500 people on a daily basis.
Since last December, the ICRC has provided more than 10,000 displaced
people in Batticaloa district with essential household items (basins, pots, plates,
mosquito nets, etc.), hygiene kits (washing powder, soap, shampoo, etc.), baby
parcels (soap, towels, baby lotion and powder, etc.), tarpaulins, jerry cans,
mats and sarongs. In the past two weeks alone, the organization has distributed
400 essential household items, 650 hygiene kits, 50 baby parcels, 300 jerry
cans and 868 mats to approximately 700 displaced families (3,000
individuals)
currently settled in several sites in Batticaloa district (Kiran, Eravur Pattu,
Movadivembu and Alankulam). Displaced people sheltering in Kilevetty School
have received 75 baby parcels and hygiene kits, and 60 displaced families from
Vakarai and Eachilampattu, in Trincomalee, have also received assistance.
Responding to a request by the World Food Programme, which was facing a
shortage of supplies, the ICRC has provided about 720 tonnes of rice to the Sri
Lanka Red Cross and the local authorities for distribution to some 62,000 people
in Batticaloa. It has also handed out about 80 tonnes of rice to some 5,000
people in Trincomalee.
In the last two weeks of January, the ICRC facilitated the evacuation of 17
patients
from Vakarai to the referral hospital in Kyankerny, Batticaloa district. Since
December, it has facilitated the evacuation of a total of 57 war-wounded
and sick patients from Vakarai to referral hospitals in the Batticaloa area.
The ICRC is continuing to cooperate closely with the Sri Lanka Red Cross in an
effort to restore contact between members of families split up by the conflict.
Since 13 December, the ICRC has collected 151 family messages and distributed another 43 in
Batticaloa district alone.
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Visits to detainees
The ICRC is continuing its visits to people arrested for security reasons. In
the past two weeks, its delegates have carried out 30 visits to 29 places of
detention in which they registered or held private interviews with 273
detainees
Civilians
In the past two weeks the ICRC, acting as a neutral intermediary, has
facilitated the passage of nearly 19,000 civilians across the Omanthai and
Uyilankulam lines. During this period, it also recorded 40 cases of abduction
by unknown persons and 100 cases of arrest throughout the country. (Excerpt)
(No. 09 / 2007 – 19/01/2007 ICRC News)
Latest report on ICRC activities in the field
General situation
As the new year dawned, fighting between government security forces and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) continued in the Vakarai area of eastern Sri Lanka, where an estimated 10,000 to 15,000 displaced persons and residents were trapped. Early this morning these people started fleeing south towards Batticaloa. Since 11 December the ICRC and other humanitarian organizations have been unable to reach the conflict zone to deliver food, clean water and medical supplies.
Around 60,000 internally displaced people who escaped the fighting in the eastern
provinces over the past months are currently being housed at some 60 different
sites in Batticaloa district and assisted by humanitarian organizations and
government authorities.
The ICRC facilitated the transfer of 14 sick and wounded persons by boat
from Vakarai to Valiaichchenai hospital in the government-controlled area
in two separate groups on 3 and 8 January.
Since 11 August the Jaffna peninsula has been cut off by road from the rest of
the island as fighting at Muhamalai has continued. Supplies have had to be
delivered by sea or air.
Civilian buses were the target of two bomb attacks – one near Galle
and the other outside Colombo – in early January. Eighteen people were
killed and some 50 were injured in the attacks.
Water and habitat
Since major hostilities intensified in Batticaloa district at the end of 2006, the ICRC has focused on providing displaced people with shelter, water and sanitation facilities. It has set up three camps in Batticaloa district (two in Kiran and one in Alankulam) and is currently building a fourth one in Mavadivembu.
The ICRC has distributed over 1,500 family-sized tents providing shelter for
about 7,000 people at these sites and given another 800 tents to partner organizations for distribution
in the same area under Sri Lanka Red Cross supervision.
In addition, the ICRC has distributed 28 cubic metres of drinking water since
the beginning of the crisis, thus providing a minimum of 5 litres of drinking
water per person for over 5,000 individuals. It has also provided over 120
emergency toilets and bathing and washing facilities.
In the Vanni, the ICRC has continued to distribute supplies allowing
thousands of displaced people to build shelters. It has also delivered around
1,500 temporary family shelters together with water and sanitation facilities
suitable for some 6,000 individuals.
Visiting
detainees
The ICRC continues to visit people
arrested for security reasons. In recent weeks ICRC delegates have registered
or held private interviews with 177 detainees during 22 visits in 21
places of detention.
Civilian population
Families throughout the country continue to report abductions of relatives by persons unknown. The ICRC has been notified of 32 such cases in the past three weeks, and of 44 arrests. Its delegates have transported the bodies of six combatants during recent weeks. (Excerpt)
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20,000 displaced face tough time
after fleeing fighting in eastern Sri Lanka
9 January 2007, COLOMBO, Sri Lanka, (UNHCR) – More than 20,000 people have fled fighting and harsh conditions in the eastern Sri Lankan costal strip of Vaharai in the past three weeks, but despite reaching relative safety they still face many problems and an uncertain future.
"Everyone we have spoken to has said their route out of Vaharai was extremely difficult," said Yoko Akasaka, head of the UNHCR field office in the town of Batticaloa. Press reports have cited people crossing frontlines, fording swollen rivers and braving crossfire to escape the rebel-controlled area.
"But there are still many struggles ahead," Akasaka noted. "Sites are hosting people at twice their actual capacity, the district is facing a potential food shortage and many families have been separated in flight or during transport to emergency sites."
Most of the displaced were put up in schools when they arrived in government-controlled Batticaloa district, which lies to the south of Vaharai. But the new term has begun and the pressure to vacate public buildings is increasing.
UNHCR and partner agencies are preparing nearly 30 longer-term sites to accommodate up to 5,000 families and the process of moving people to the new government-proposed sites should be completed by the end of the month.
UNHCR has offered the authorities assistance in organising so-called "go and see" visits so community leaders and other volunteers can visit their former homes, many further north of Vaharai in Trincomalee district, and decide whether return would be safe and sustainable.
As fighting continues to erupt across Sri Lanka's north and east, the future is uncertain for Vaharai's internally displaced people (IDP) – just as it is for most of Sri Lanka's 465,000 IDPs, including some 216,000 people forced from their homes by last year's violence. (Excerpt)
By Clare Graham
In Colombo, Sri Lanka
Courtesy - http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/UNHCR
Tens of thousands of IDPs without protection and assistance
16 November 2006 - The protracted armed conflict between the Sri Lankan government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) has escalated dramatically since the beginning of 2006, with an estimated 3,300 people having been killed and over 200,000 internally displaced, in addition to the hundreds of thousands uprooted earlier on in the conflict and by the tsunami of December 2004. Both sides to the conflict are accused of deliberately targeting civilians and committing grave human rights violations with impunity. The government as well as the LTTE have severely restricted access to conflict areas under their control, thus leaving more than half of the newly displaced people and other affected populations without adequate international protection and humanitarian assistance. The areas mostly affected by renewed violence and displacement include Jaffna, Trincomalee and Batticaloa. (Excerpt)
(http://www.internal-displacement.org/)
Over 209,000 newly displaced in 2006 (October 2006)
* Renewed fighting in 2006 forced over 200,000 people to flee their homes, bringing the total of conflict-displacement to probably well over 500,000
* As of June 2005, over 385,000 IDPs have returned home, most of them in 2002 and 2003; some 347,000 people remain displaced by the conflict, most of them staying with friends and family
* According to estimates, 78% of the displaced are Tamils, 13% Muslims and 8% Sinhalese.
* In the LTTE-controlled Vanni, an estimated 80% of the population was displaced as of January 2002, 90% in Kilinochchi District. (http://www.internal-displacement.org/)
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The current displacement situation
3 October 2006,
UNHCR Sri Lanka - UNHCR reported the total of new displacement (which occurred
during the fighting in 2006) as being 209,295 on 3 October 2006. As of 31 May, UNHCR estimated
the total of conflict IDPs who were unable to return after the 2002
ceasefire at 312,712 (see sources). Including the latest estimate of 457,576
tsunami IDPs
(31 December 2005, see sources), and factoring in a certain overlap between the
three IDP groups, the total figure of displacement - due to both conflict and
tsunami - could be between 600,000 and 800,000 (there is no official
estimate). Of those, some 500,000 people are displaced due to conflict,
although the overlap between the 200,000 newly displaced and the 312,712
pre-2002 conflict IDPs is not known, and many displaced may not be accounted
for in the official figures due to access problems:
Many of those who have returned home during 2006 have been re-displaced. Therefore, and again due to limited access to conflict areas, accurate estimates on returns are not possible.
Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC)
Situation Report – No 63 – 22 February 2007
Ampara District
* Overall situation remains tense in Ampara.
* The uncleared areas remain inaccessible to humanitarian actors as military operations launched on 6 January are continuing. As a result it is reported that almost all of the population has gradually displaced to cleared areas. A government census has not been conducted in the area and when the UN did an assessment of the area in November 2006 there were 75 families residing in the uncleared area from an initial 850 families.
* At the Inter-Agency Coordination meeting held 21 February, INGOs informed that security procedures at checkpoints have tightened and national staff are reporting incidents of harassment by armed groups.
Food
* General food distribution for IDPs is ongoing. WFP has released 30-day dry rations for 2,949 individuals mainly hosted in families of relatives in 12 DS divisions. Other regular WFP programmes namely Mother & Child Nutrition (MCN) and School Feeding Programme is also ongoing. A total of 42,000 beneficiaries and 19,820 beneficiaries are targeted under these programmes respectively.
* Save the children will work in three camps hosting conflict IDPs, Thekkancholai (Kamlmunai Tamil), Central Camp (Navithanveli), CEB camp in Sainthamaruthu.
Protection
* Local communities and humanitarian actors are increasingly concerned about the presence of armed groups. Armed groups are now known to be operating in Thirukkovil, Kalmunai, Akkaraippatu. Navithanveli (Central Camp) and Potuvil causing fear among the communities as abductions continue.
* This has resulted in a decline in attendance at child playground and school programs.(Excerpt)
Batticaloa District
The general situation remains tense with a visible presence of armed groups in the district.
Internally Displaced Persons
* According to the Government statistics as of 20 February, the total registered IDP population in the district is 21,350 families / 78,364 individuals. This represents a slight increase compared to last week since there are people displaced from Vavunathivu in West Batticaloa due to ongoing military operations. There are currently 52 IDP welfare centres in the district as of 20 February 2007.
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Food
* During the reporting period, ZOA distributed supplementary food for one week to 225 families in Maruthanagar camp, 527 families in Vinayahapuram camp and 504 families in Parangiyamadu camp.
However, there is a need for supplementary food items (vegetables, coconut, spices)
* World Vision has continued its distributions of dry rations to IDP families from Kurukkalmadam and Chettipalayam camp including host families in Kokkuvil IDP camp.
* IOM is providing complementary food items through FCE at the following six Welfare Centres-Thalawai (43 families), Kaluwankerny (426 families), Palacholai (222 families), Mavadivembu (215 F), Kirimutty Farm (247 F) and Alankulam (260 F). The arrangement has been extended up to March 1 week.
Education:
* In some divisions, displaced children are not attending school as a result of parents security concerns or schools being too far away. Some displaced children have also spent long periods out of school so are now struggling to recover lost time. (Excerpt)
Trincomalee District
The situation in Trincomalee district remains tense.
* On 13 February ICRC visited Eachchilampattai through Mahindapura checkpoint (former front defence line between SLA and LTTE), the first agency to do so since late July 2006.
* Ralkulai (Muttur West) area de-mining is completed and government authorities informed that the resettlement of IDPs from that area can now take place. The mine clear certificate was recently issued by the Danish de-mining Team.
Internally Displaced Persons
* The IDP figures for Trincomalee district stand at 1,117 families comprising 3,457 persons from various locations within the district. (Excerpt)
Vavuniya and Mannar Districts
15 - 22 February 2007
* The security situation in Vavuniya remains tense with continued daily reports of unrest including killings, claymore attacks, grenade attacks and retaliation. Also reported was aerial bombardments in Vavuniya north and increased cordon and search operations. NGOs cannot undertake field activities with national staff of aid agencies afraid of going to the field.
Internally Displaced Persons
* The IDP figures in Mannar district particularly Madhu division has increased. People are moving to Madhu church and nearby areas from Pandiviruchan, Thallady and Thampanai of Manthai west DS division in Mannar. A total of 1,500 families (around 7,000 people) has been registered in the church.
* GA office figures report 9464 IDPs in Mannar while 5586 IDPs are in Vavuniya.
NFRI
* UNHCR and the Danish Refugee Council have both got approval from the Commissioner General of Essential Service (CGES) to transport shelter materials to Vavuniya north and NFRIs to 550 families and 700 families, but clearance from the Ministry of Defence is still pending.
* The UNHCR distributed 30 NFRI packages to IDPs in Mannar.
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Protection
* There is still no police presence in the two welfare centres of Ponthoddam and Sithamparapuram, and UNHCR and other protection agencies continue to visit the sites on a rotating basis. The residents continue to report increased fear, particularly at night.
* UNICEF under its Child Protection program provided a Toyota Land Cruiser Pickup to the Women and Childrens Desk at the Vavuniya Police station. (Excerpt)
Kilinochchi & Mullaitivu Districts
* The Commissioner General for Essential Services (CGES) has approved the fuel quota for UN agencies working in Kilinochchi and Mullaitivu districts for February 2007. A total of 11,980 litters of diesel and 1,042 litters of petrol has been approved out of the requested amount of 30,000 litters of diesel and 1,000 litters of petrol submitted by the UN. The quota has been significantly reduced without prior consultation with the UN. However, the Ministry of Defence has yet to inform the local area commander so clearance can be obtained to transport it to Kilinochchi.
* On 20 February, local media reported aerial attacks in the Parasankulam area. Two people were reportedly killed.
* During the course of the week, a total of 382,800 litters of kerosene out of the February allocation of 700,000 litters was transported from Vavuniya to Kilinochchi by the district MPCSs (Multi-Purpose Cooperative Society) for general public consumption.
Internally Displaced Persons
* The total number of IDPs in Kilinochchi remains at 45, 665 persons (11,663 families).
Shelter
* To date, DRC (Danish Refugee Council) has completed 164 temporary shelters out of a planned 500 in various locations in Kilinochchi district while 153 temporary shelters are under construction.
* Solidar through RRDO (Rural Rehabilitation and Development Organization) has completed 90 temporary shelters out of a planned 115 for the IDPs living in Kumarapuram and Umaiyalpuram villages in Kilinochchi district.
Education
* In order to provide educational supplies for conflict affected school children, Caritas/Hudec has provided school stationeries for 1,000 children from Vavuniya, on 17 February. 900 students including 250 IDPs children studying in the Akkarayan GTMS have also benefited from SCiSL school stationeries.
* Solidar has started on work to provide temporary arrangements for the 150 displaced students at the Chundikkulam School been registered since September 2006. (Excerpt)
MSF Responds to Ongoing Violence in Sri Lanka
Medecins Sans Frontieres - 24 January 2007
Throughout 2006, tens of thousands of people have been displaced by the armed conflict in Sri Lanka while at least 15,000 people have fled to India. For the past nine months, Doctors Without Borders/Mdecins Sans Frontires (MSF) has been pushing to provide medical assistance to the population living in the conflict affected areas of Sri Lanka. In July 2006, MSF opened a medical program in Point Pedro Hospital in the north of the country, but was obliged to close two months later due to visa restrictions and false accusations levelled against MSF in the media. MSF has now been allowed to return to the north of the country, and has sent three surgical teams to hospitals in Point Pedro, Vavuniya, and Mannar. Gwenola Franois, MSF field coordinator in Point Pedro, gives an account of the situation since her arrival in December 2006.
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What are the conditions on the whole of Jaffna peninsula?
The peninsula has been practically cut off from the rest of the country since last year when the main highway was closed due to the conflict. Around 500,000 people live in this enclave, many of them with depleted resources since commerce by land is no longer possible. Access to the peninsula is only by air and sea so most of the supply is carried out by boat, but this can take several months. If there are delays in the supply of food or other basic items then the situation can deteriorate rapidly for the people. There is also a great deal of violence on the peninsula. Fighting between government forces and the Tamil Tigers, as well as assassinations and grenade attacks, have lead many people to flee. As a result, many medical specialists have fled to Colombo, while others are unwilling to come to the peninsula to replace them. For example, there is only one pediatrician for the whole peninsula nearly half a million people.
How has the situation evolved since MSF was in Point Pedro in October?
Before MSF left in October 2006, there had been major fighting in and around Point Pedro. There are still incidents, such as mine and grenade explosions, or assassinations. Everyone must be back at home for the curfew by 5 pm or by 7 pm depending on the day, so all the shops close by three in the afternoon. On the other hand, the food situation has improved these past few weeks, as some ships with basic food supplies such as lentils, rice and potatoes arrived recently in Point Pedro. There hadn't been any potatoes in the peninsula for two months, so everyone was talking about it. The arrival of more food has brought the prices down a little in the market, as it was very expensive before. This may last for some days until reserves run short and provisions may deteriorate again. In general terms, the relative calm in Point Pedro can change very, very rapidly. Last weekend there was fighting in Point Pedro harbour killing a woman and wounding her two children, so it is a very fragile situation for the people. Until there is a durable ceasefire I think our work will be absolutely necessary here in order to provide specialized medical care for a population that is going through a very difficult crisis.
(Excerpt - http://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/news/2007/01-24-2007.cfm)
The Situation in Jaffna – the major problems are :
1. Shortage of food: This is severely affecting the poor who usually spend 80-90% of their daily income on food. The income of the people is also limited as a result of restriction on fishing and agriculture (in the HSZ and adjoining camps) The basic food items like Rice, sugar, Dhal [lentils] have increased by 5 times (Rice is 150/= Sugar is 350/= etc) As a result the poor are having food only once a day and some once in two to three days. The food items which the government says it sends, are insufficient. Out of the food that is transported through KKS harbour only a portion of it reaches the civilians.
2. Shortage of Drugs: The Health Ministry states that the allocations requested have been sent. It is true and the Heads of Medical Institutions are made to say it. But the fact is we had a very large population taking drugs from the private sector [before the embargo]. The private sector has not been able to bring drugs from Colombo. Therefore, the sector that was using drugs from the private sector are now eating into the hospital drugs. Finally, the poor are suffering without drugs like; anti-hypertensive, cardiac, anti-diabetic drugs.
3. Shortage of fuel: Fuel is given in limited quantities. In the past month, I have got only 2 litres of petrol. You can imagine the plight of the ordinary person! As a result of fuel shortage, transport is affected. Electricity is available for about 6 hours a day (5-7 am & 6-10pm). Sometimes this is also cut down. Buses are also limited.
4. Curfew: This is imposed from 6 pm to 5 am. Law-abiding citizens cannot move about. But robberies, killings, etc. all take place during that time. No one is arrested!
Reopening of the A9 is the only immediate solution. Shipping is not a cheap or easy transport. It will probably help the government to control and help someone to pilfer what is coming in. The ships can also be used to transport items other than food for the civilians.
Further, during the next few months, the monsoon will set in and ship transport will be interrupted.
If the A9 is not opened, we will have major health problems. There are 60 camps with displaced persons. 24 of them house the displaced after August 2006. Among them. there are about 50 pregnant mothers. In follow up on two mothers who delivered last month, one baby was 2300 g and the other 2550g. The mothers are malnourished. This situation is going to worsen. (Excerpt – 23 Novermber 2006 - http://www.sangam.org/)
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Annexes
Letter submitted by Karen Parker, Chief delegate of IED and the Pres. of AHL, to the
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and
Special advisor to the Secretary General on Prevention of Genocide
United Nations Office
154 Fifth Avenue
San Francisco, CA 94118
29 January 2007
Mme Louise Arbour
M Juan Mendez
Madame and Monsieur:
On 10 November 2006 International Educational Development (IED) and the Association of Humanitarian Lawyers (AHL) sent a letter expressing grave concern about the situation in Sri Lanka. We now consider that the situation has disintegrated even further, placing the Tamil people on the island, already victims of ethnic cleansing, at serious risk of genocide.
We have addressed human rights and humanitarian law in the context of this armed conflict for 24 years, and consider the cumulative toll on the Tamil people to be now especially grave. That the war between the government forces and the Liberation of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) is almost exclusively in the Tamil areas and would, therefore, result in some Tamil civilian casualties, does not alter our opinion that the situation is genocidal, especially considering that so many military operations are deliberately directed at Tamil civilians and that the policies as a whole aim to either kill or drive the Tamils out of their own areas if not the island.
At present time, the dire ground realities of the Tamil civilian affected by the war are worsened by steadily escalating and shrill anti-Tamil rhetoric from Sinhala government officials, leaders of the extremist Buddhist party (the JHU), and other Sinhala leaders that carries beyond the island. This also is having a negative effect on the hundreds of thousand of Tamil refugees and exiles in the diaspora and has been, regrettably, so effective in its demonizing of the Tamil people as a whole that it has interfered with international solidarity for the Tamil victims. In fact, as the situation of the Tamils has worsened, the international community appears to have grown quieter. Some of the few statements made omit the fact that most of the victims are Tamil. We note with alarm the recent words of a former member of the Indian Cabinet Secretariat indicating that the government of Sri Lanka is
taking advantage of the silence of the international community, including India, on its policy of using its Air Force, heavy artillery and forced starvation to force the Tamils to submission.[1]
We have long been shocked at the policies of Sinhala-dominated governments to encourage large-scale relocation of Sinhalese into tradition Tamil areas. In discussing the current governments resettling of former Sinhala soldiers into areas from which Tamil civilians have recently fled, the same author writes:
the ultimate objective of Mr. Rajapakses advisors is to reduce the Sri Lankan Tamils to the status of the Red Indians of Sri Lanka kept confined to certain reserves as museum pieces. A more anti-Tamil group of hard line advisors Sri Lanka has not had since the Tamils rose in revolt in 1983.[2]
Since our 10 November 2006 letter, the day to day realities of Tamils in Sri Lanka prompts nearly daily urgent action type requests to essentially all the Human Rights Councils Special Procedures. That so many Special Procedures are invoked, and the acts in question are very grave, supports our view that the situation against the Tamils is genocidal. We provide a brief review of some of the current most pressing issues, in the order of the Councils list of special procedures:
1. Special Rapporteur on housing: Tamils, already displaced and denied housing aid on the basis of race after the 2004 Tsunami, have recently been bombed out of a number of locations. Tamil civilians are increasing homeless, or living in camps for internally displaced. The homes of displaced Tamils are being given to Sinhala settlers. Recent figures attest to about 200,000 Tamils newly displaced and as many as 300,000 Tamils recently forcibly evicted.
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2. Working Group on Arbitrary Detention: Tamils are being rounded up en masse. The notorious Boosa camp has been reopened, following the reinstatement of the draconian Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA), and Tamils are sent there with no charges, no right to counsel, or any other of the minimum procedural rights. Boosa camp is Sri Lankas Guantanamo. As of 25 January, there have been over 350 Tamils sent to Boosa, and least 116 are known to still be there. The PTA allows detention without charges or right to counsel for eighteen months. Acts considered terrorist for purposes of the PTA include intimidating a witness, mischief to public property (i.e. graffiti), defacing street signs or billboards, bank robbery and a number of other common misdemeanours or ordinary felonies. We are unaware of any non-Tamil at Boosa camp or arrested under the PTA.
3. Working Group on Disappearances: The white vans are back -- vans that circulate in Tamil areas whose passengers seize Tamil civilians, primarily youth. In the past three weeks, 41 Tamils disappeared from Vavuniya alone, as well as 6 in the village Chavakachcheri. Human rights offices in the Tamil areas are overwhelmed with cases, and a number of Tamils are now seeking protective custody orders from local magistrates to avoid being seized. The whereabouts of seven aid workers from Tamil Relief Organization (TRO), disappeared in early 2006, is still unknown.
4. Special Rapporteur on (Right to Life): Since our last communications, hundreds of Tamil civilian have been killed when they were targeted by Sri Lanka Air Force planes, heavy artillery, and the like. Bishop Joseph of Mannar called the bombardment of Padahuthurai fishing village a crime against humanity. On 25 January, the only Tamil member of the Kinniya Urban Council was killed, and all ten Tamils on the Trincomalee Urban Council have received death threats. On the same day, two Tamil youths were found dead by bullet wounds in Eravur (Trincomalee District). Conservative estimates by the BBC indicate nearly 3500 killings since January 2006: almost all of the civilian casualties in the war are Tamils directly targeted by government forces rather than being incidental civilian casualties.
5. Independent Expert on Extreme Poverty: The Tamils, devastated by the Tsunami in their areas, were barely provided post-Tsunami aid. The current scale and scope of High Security Zones in the Tamils areas has essentially destroyed subsistence farming in the Tamil areas. Many Tamils are in camps for the internally displaced, relying on meager charity aid, and with serious food and medicine shortages. Many Tamil fishermen have not had their Tsunami-lost boats replaced and the few with boats have their fishing heavily restricted by government policies. Much of the Tamil population in the North is now in dire poverty, and high food prices make it nearly impossible to obtain minimum food needs. Agencies that might provide some aid for the newly poor Tamils have not been allowed to fully function or have been forced out.
6. Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food: In addition to what is presented above, and in spite of our earlier communications in this regard, the government is still clearly using food as a weapon or war by severely restricting access to food by blocking key land routes to Tamil civilians, and forcing Tamils to flee many areas to avoid starvation. As set out in our previous communications, the governments policies in this regard violate the Geneva Conventions and customary norms of humanitarian law. Calls from our organizations, other non-governmental organizations, religious figures and others to prevent starvation of Tamil civilians have gone largely unheeded.
7. Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Expression: We have already sent a number of communications containing information about serious violation of the rights of the media. International media watch groups have indicated that Sri Lanka was one the most dangerous place for journalists in 2006. Recent events show that 2007 is also going to be a difficult year: on 9 January, a mob led by a deputy minister attacked journalists in Super Marker Square (Colombo) gathered to cover a peace demonstration. Tamil journalist M. Parameswaree, arrested without charge on 24 November 2006, appears to still be in custody. Tamil journalists in Trincomalee have been sent death threats.
8. Special Rapporteur on the Right to Health: Since our earlier communications, the health situation of the Tamils in the Tamil areas has continued to deteriorate due to both lack of food and lack of basic medicines and medical personnel. Hospitals, medical facilities and personnel serving Tamil civilians continue to be targeted by government armed forces in direct violation of the Geneva Conventions and customary humanitarian law. Conditions in the numerous camps for internally displaced persons are very difficult, and there is likely to be serious medical consequences of overcrowding, exposure to the elements, lack of food and medicine, and lack of adequate sleep. Many people will certainly have serious mental health consequences of being targeted and deprived.
9. Special Representative on Human Rights Defenders: As we have set out in previous communications, international non-governmental organizations, local human rights groups, and individual human rights defenders of and aid providers to Tamils have been attacked. As indicated above, the whereabouts of the seven members of the TRO are still unknown. Seventeen workers from Action Contre le Faim were assassinated. Medicines san Frontieres, World Concern and other groups have had their work to aid Tamils severely restricted. In fact, any group seeking to defend the rights or come to the aid of Tamils is threatened both in Sri Lanka and in other parts of the world. The American Red Cross and other donors were not allowed to distribute any of the hundreds of millions of $US collected to assist Tsunami victims in the Tamil areas. Even former Secretary-General Kofi Annan, the ultimate human right defender, was not allowed to visit the Tamil areas after the Tsunami. His envoys were subsequently also kept from the Tamil areas. Human rights work on behalf of Tamil war victims is drastically under-funded in relation to the need and those involved are under constant threat.
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10. The Representative on Internally Displaced Persons: The Tamil population in Sri Lanka has, by percentage, one of the highest rates of internally displaced in the world today. Most estimates show that more than one third of the remaining Tamil population on the island is displaced. In addition, many others have recently fled to India, which had already had hundreds of thousands of refugees from past periods of the conflict and from the Tsunami. The Tamil diaspora represents one third of the Eelam Tamils, and now numbers over 1 million persons. The camps for the IDPs are in deplorable condition due to lack of food, water, sanitation, medical care, schooling, and adequate shelter. Some of the IDPs are housed in schools, making the schools for those local communities unusable.
11. Special Rapporteur on Racism: Our organizations have been stunned by the virulence of anti-Tamil rhetoric from Sinhala leaders for some time. However, the current administration is both more open and more aggressive in its anti-Tamil position and the ruling coalition government includes some of the most overtly racist parties. These parties are quite open about insisting that the Sinhala majority completely dominates the Tamil people or, even better, drives them out. Race-motivated crimes against Tamils in the Sinhala areas is on the rise as anti-Tamil mobs become emboldened by the rhetoric and by the failure of government authorities to prosecute these crimes. We have already sent communications regarding mob attacks on Tamil neighbourhood earlier this year, but smaller attacks continue. As an example, on 22 January 2007, Sinhala mobs attacked Tamil passengers on a bus in Matale. There are reports of similar incidents essentially every day. Many militant Sinhalese argue for a Tamil-free island. Even the flag can be viewed as racist as it is dominated by the Sinhala lion.[3] Racism is fanned further by the governments continual mislabelling of the LTTE and Tamils as terrorist and the armed conflict as terrorism and counter terrorism -- a mislabelling that has unfortunately been echoed by other actors in the international community.[4]
12. Special Rapporteur on Torture. As Special Rapporteur Alston indicated in his report of his mission in Sri Lanka to look into summary executions, torture in Sri Lankan jails is systematic and death from such torture common. While there is torture of Sinhala as well as Tamil people, all the persons held in Boosa camp, notorious in the past for torture, are Tamil. Bodies of Tamils tortured to death are found nearly on a daily bases in the North and East.[5]
In our view, the government of Sri Lanka has been given far too much latitude by the international community. If the Tamils are to survive as a people in Sri Lanka, this must change immediately. Sri Lankas promise to establish the eminent persons team of international experts to monitor its own investigative Commission derailed potential useful action contemplated by the Council in its 2d session. Now, four months later, such a team has yet to be put in place, and even if it were, it is doubtful that the government of Sri Lanka will let it function in a useful way. We see this as a tactic to delay more meaningful scrutiny and action while the government pushes to annihilate the Tamils.
On a number of occasions we have communicated our concerns that the geopolitical interests of other countries, in particular the United States, in the Tamil areas of Sri Lanka have been a factor in the failure to resolve this conflict. These same geopolitical interests may now be a factor in possible genocide. Unless it is already too late, the United Nations and its human rights defenders may be the only hope that the Tamils have to prevent their annihilation. We are aware that anyone who either criticizes the government of Sri Lanka or indicates any sympathy for the plight of Tamils will be subjected to strong complaints and accusations from the government. We have been so subjected, as has Alan Rock (investigator on issue of children in armed conflict) and a number of other concerned people and groups. We view this as part of a genocidal agenda.
We end this letter with a selection from former Secretary-General Kofi Annans statement to the 2004 session of the Commission on Human Rights:
Whenever civilians are deliberately targeted because they belong to a particular community we are in the presence of potential, if not active, genocide. . . .We can no longer afford to be blind to the grim dynamic. Nor should we imagine that appeals to morality, or compassion, will have much effect on a people who have adopted a deliberate strategy of killing and forcible expulsion.[6]
Thank you for your kind attention to this matter,
Karen Parker, JD,
Chief delegate, IED & President, AHL
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President Mahinda Rajapaksa's 14-month achievements
(By Jayantha Gnanakone, USA – 26 January 2007)
1. Immediately created fear, intimidation, threats, and arrest with the cordon and search activities of the military and police let loose with a vengeance on the Tamil civilians. This created fear, panic, insecurity and instability on the Tamils Island wide including the Indian Tamil community who live under a false sense of security that they will be protected.
2. Indiscriminate aerial bombing, shelling, missile and artillery attacks, shooting and grenade attacks on civilians.
3. Three Tamil Members of Parliament and 5 students were murdered mafia style within a few months.
4. Over 3000 Tamils have been killed and over 10 thousand injured.
5. Non-sharing of Tsunami Aid, Foreign Aid, and Budget revenues.
6. Prevention of infrastructure projects in Tamil districts worth hundreds of Billions of rupees.
7. No new schools, hospitals, roads, bridges, anicuts, culverts, Power plants, industries and other facilities.
8. Ethnic cleansing in an unprecedented manner, chasing Tamils in Sampur, Sennaiyoor, Echalampattu, and Vaharai. Other smaller Tamil villages in Amparai and Trincomalee district also have been cleared of Tamils. All in all, over half a million new refugees and IDP's have been created.
9. Tamils have been systematically, calculatedly, wilfully and deliberately starved, deprived of food, fuel, and medicine by the Rajapakses by closing of the A 9, and A 15. GOSL are also harassing, intimidating and preventing INGO's from providing humanitarian assistance to the Tamils in the North and East.
10. The Tamil NGO TRO has been prevented from functioning, on a worldwide basis with the freezing of 1 Million dollars and all their bank accounts in Sri Lanka. Other Tamil NGO's funds are also been withheld by the Central Bank, whose Governor himself is a close associate of the President. 17 Tamils working for the French NGO, Action Contre la Faim (ACF) were murdered in Muthur. 7 TRO volunteers were kidnapped, tortured and murdered. Many other Tamil employees from INGOs have been abducted and murdered.
11. GOSL and it's ambassadors spend millions of dollars canvassing over 100 (hundred) countries, United Nations, and other organizations to ban TRO, LTTE and harass the Tamil Diaspora as "Terrorist". In 2005 HRW wrote a scathing report against the Tamils and the LTTE about intimidation and threats regarding fund raising. Although the reports were false, Canada and 25 European countries used that report, and GOSL campaign and pressure, as well as Geneva Call's lobbying to ban land mines and IED's with the EU and UN, and proscribed the LTTE as a TERRORIST organization.
12. The Tamil Diaspora has been continuously harassed worldwide, due to the Singhalese diplomats and the GOSL providing false information and allegations.. The impunity and arrogance of the GOSL controlled electronic and print media is unprecedented in the Tamil-Singhala civil war.
13. All cooperation, humanitarian assistance, poverty alleviation programmes between the GOSL and LTTE have become non-existent and SHIRN defunct.
14. The Peace Secretariat in Colombo has become the War Secretariat pouring out venomous Anti Tamil rhetoric regularly.
15. Para Military forces have more than doubled giving a new lease of life to Tamil quisling groups. Karuna group, which was virtually dead, has literally risen like the phoenix with the assistance and protection of the GOSL. Anandasangaree and other Tamil traitors continuing a campaign against the Tamil freedom struggle, helping the GOSL to demonize the Tamils and the LTTE.
With the emergence of the Rajapakse regime, and it's refusal to implement the CFA clause on the disarming of Para military forces, including the Karuna group as agreed in Geneva-I talks, there were serious changes in the ground realities in the Batticaloa district. Karuna group, with impunity and supported by actions of the Sri Lanka Army began the recruitment of underage children by force. UNICEF received reports of abductions and recruitments only of boys by the Karuna faction. Children have been abducted from the streets, temples and their homes, mainly in Government-controlled areas. Reports were also received that children were recruited and abducted in areas in close proximity to government security offices and checkpoints.
GOSL now panders to the para military groups especially the Karuna Group and EPDP where the leader is a Minister in the 53 member cabinet. The escalation of kidnappings, abductions and disappearances is a direct result of such a policy.
16. Anti LTTE champion Jeevan Hoole was appointed Chancellor of the Jaffna University (JU) creating unnecessary turmoil affecting the Jaffna University. The army specifically targets the JU students for beatings, arrests, and other abuses. The schools and University has been closed for many months during this regime affecting the Tamils' education. Last December, Prof. Raveendranath the VC from the Eastern University was abducted in Colombo and still missing!
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17. Curfews, lack of electricity and telephones, and attacks have made the Tamils' life miserable, affecting fishing, farming, dairy farming, trade, jobs and income. The economy is being ruined 300-500 per cent.
18. The cost of living has increased by 1,000 per cent mainly due to closure of A 9, and A 15 affecting three quarter million Tamils. There is also a ban in fishing and agriculture thereby affecting all transport and trade jobs. Fuel is virtually unavailable, and so are candles, boxes of matches and kerosene for lamps. It is Stone Age under the Mahinda Chintanaya.
19. The de-merger (North East) has been completed, two military governors appointed, and even a Federal system is not being considered. 30 years of Tamil sacrifice is going down the tubes with this President, without much hope for peace.
20. Draconian laws have been initiated, called PPT-STAR, more powerful than the PTA. Boosa torture camp has been reopened with over 300 Tamils being kept there, incommunicado.
21. Plans to drill oil in Tamil areas without revenue sharing with the province is going ahead. India has been given the best block in the Gulf of Mannar. Other IC will also be awarded and corrupt deals are going on without any obstruction.
22. Trincomalee is going to be colonized by Singhalese with the setting up of an industrial zone.
23. Licences for bottom trawling in Tamil waters are being processed for foreign trawlers close to the coast.
24. Mineral sands export is going to begin next year, with naval protection in the Trincomalee district.
25. International Port and Airport will be built only in the Southern province and not Trincomalee.
26. No Irrigation of major highway projects for the Tamil province. No new hospitals for the next ten years for the Tamils, while schools are being destroyed or used for IDP's.
ACTC calls for UN peace keeping force in Lanka
Vinayagamoorthy writes to UN Chief
Daily Mirror, 5 March 2007 - The All Ceylon Tamil Congress has appealed to the UN to send a United Nations Peace Keeping Force to the country to protect Sri Lankan Tamils and maintain and ensure peace.
Congress President Apapthuray Vinayagamoorthy in a letter to UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon alleged that abductions, killings and illegal arrests which continue in North, East, Colombo and the upcountry were done by the government Security Forces assisted by a Para Military Group.
He has also quoted the Asia Watch as saying that the Emergency Regulations that are being promulgated by the - government every month is the cause for the abductions, killings and illegal arrests as they gave wide powers to security forces.
The letter said: Your Excellencys kind reference is requested to my letter dated 22nd September, 2006 sent to your predecessor regarding the problems faced by the Sri Lankan Tamils in Sri Lanka.
01. All what I have stated in that letter still continue. A copy of which is attached hereto.
02. Abductions, killings and illegal arrests of Tamils still take place almost daily in North, East and in Colombo, and in upcountry also. Tamils who are being illegally arrested in Colombo are sent to a Camp in Boosa and are detained there in thousands.
03. The UNHCR in its report issued in December, 2006 has stated as follows:-
According to the report, in the first six months of 2006 there have been increases in search operations at media institutions, arrests of journalists and other forms of harassment, particularly the targeting of Tamil media institutions and media workers. A statement by UNESCO condemning the killing of Sinnathamby Sivamsaharajan, the Managing Director Namathu Eelanadu, and a Tamil-Language newspaper in Tellippalai on 26 August 2006 stated that four Journalists had been killed in Sri Lanka since the beginning of 2005.
04. Abductions, killings and illegal arrests which continue in North, East, Colombo and upcountry are done by the Government Security Forces, assisted by the Para Military Group. The action of the Para Military Group which helps t he government has tacit approval of the government and as a result the Tamils do not know to whom to complain.
05. I regret to note no action seems to have been taken on my letter dated 22 September 2006.
06. I shall be very much obliged if you could inform me what action the United nations has taken on my earlier letter and what it intends now to do to protect the Sri Lankan Tamils.
In this connection a copy of a letter sent by Hon. Kim Howells, Minister of State of the foreign Commonwealth Office who came to Sri Lanka recently to the Elfyn Llwyd Esq., MP is attached hereto. In this letter he states as follows:-
I share Mr. Vinayagamoorthys concern at the worsening security and human Rights situation in Sri Lanka.
All human abuses by any party to the conflict are deplorable and in all cases there must be credible investigations and perpetrators should be brought to justice.
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07. Asia Watch has stated that the Emergency Regulations that are being promulgated by the government every month is the cause for the abductions, killings and illegal arrests as they give wide powers to Security Forces.
08. In the circumstance, I have no other alternative once again, but to request your Excellency to immediately send a United Nations Peace Keeping Forces to provide the Sri Lankan Tamils and maintain and ensure peace. (Excerpt)
Protest against the deteriorating conditions
in educational establishments in the Northeast
Educational officials, students and staff of schools staged a protest against the deteriorating conditions in educational establishments in the Northeast.
Vilaththikulam School Principal was killed in Mannar on 27th February. A teacher and her two children injured in the attack of Deep Penetration Unit in Mannar on 28 th February.
Norwegian ambassador Hans Brattskar met with the Officials of the Zonal Education Department in Kilinochchi around 5.00pm on 5th February. At the end of the meeting a memorandum was handed over to the Secretary General of UN through the Norwegian Ambassador.
Council for Advancement of Education of Tamils - CAET
His Excellency, the Secretary General of UN 05 March, 2007
United Nations Organization
New York, USA
Your Excellency,
An Appeal to Bring Relief and Solace to Our Children
Shocked and distressed at the instantaneous death of the Principal of Mannar/ Vilaathikkulam School, Mr. Siluvairasa Arulnesan, 33 years old, and of the death, two days later, of the Divisional Director of Education of Madhu Region, Mr. Christian Rajakone, 47 years old, and saddened and perturbed by the serious injury caused to the teacher of Parappukkadanthan G.T.M. school, Mrs. Eucharista Henry Jeyam, 42 years old, and her husband and her 4 year-old daughter and 15 year-old son, by claymore ambush on successive days, 27th and 28 th of February, 2007, while they were travelling on motor cycles, we, the community of students and parents, teachers and principals, officials in the educational field and the Council for the Advancement of the Tamils of North-East, having demonstrated our protest in a peaceful mass rally, unequivocally and vehemently condemn these cowardly and dastardly inhuman acts of terrorism of the Sri Lanka Army's Deep Penetration Unit.
The first claymore attack took place on Madhu–Aandankulam Road while the Divisional Director of Education was taking the victim, the newly appointed principal on a motor cycle to be installed as the Principal of Mannar/Vilaathikkulam School. The second claymore attack took place while the injured teacher was on her way with her family from Aandankulam to take refuge at Madhu Church, thus trying to escape from the barrage of artillery shelling of the Sri Lankan Forces.
While expressing with gravest concern our abhorrence and disgust at the spate of killings of innocent civilians, especially children and women, in the North-East, by the Sri Lanka Armed Forces and by its partners the paramilitary groups and the Deep Penetration Units, we feel grieved and dismayed that this course of violence has now been let loose on the school community. The blatant cold-blooded killings, the mysterious disappearances and abductions and arrests of innocent civilians, including school children, the indiscriminate artillery shelling and bombing of civilian settlements, even schools, the frequent cordon and search operations in and around schools, which all tantamount to gross violation of human rights and a prelude to genocide, are an affront to all decent members of our society, and go to show that the Sri Lanka Government is hell-bent on destroying the cultural values most treasured by the Tamil nation, particularly education.
Step-motherly arms of the Sri Lanka Government that doled out some crumbs to the children in the schools of the Tamil homeland in the form of deprivation of facilities, shortages of teachers and furniture, falsification of facts and figures in school text books, and a host of other maltreatments, during the past two decades, has now taken a new turn in the form of a dragoon-foot that is aimed at crushing the very foundation of the educational structure of the Tamils.
We, therefore, earnestly appeal to you, the highly esteemed Secretary General of the UN, and to all UN branch organizations caring for children's rights, to take meaningful and effective steps to ensure that lives of innocent civilians, especially of children and those labouring for children's welfare and development, are respected and protected, and to stop this carnage and bring relief and solace to our children.
Yours sincerely,
Rev. Fr. G. A. Francis Joseph
President - Council for Advancement of Education of Tamils – CAET
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[1] B. Ramen, Rajapakse Bent on Dictated Peace, in South Asia Analysis Group, Paper No. 2088 of 7 January 2007, www.saag.org. In this regard we also point out that appointment of an international eminent persons group whose members must be approved by the government of Sri Lanka and whose mandate limits then to situations pre-approved by the government of Sri Lanka cannot be viewed as a responsible action by the international community to address adequately the situation. We note that the governments approval of Mr. Bernard Kouchner, the EUs nominee, was in doubt as his appointment would be disadvantageous to the government.
[2] Idem. We also urge you to consult N Satyendra, Sri Lankas War on Eelam Tamils: Sri Lankas Ethnic Cleansing in www.tamilnation.org/indictment/index.htm setting out the 56 year record. This article has many references to UN action in Sri Lanka and the many efforts by non-governmental organizations, including our own, to generate effective international action.
[3] According to historians of the post-colonial period, the unveiling of the Sinhala lion flag on the eve of independence was the beginning of concerns that the Tamil people would be marginalized or excluded from full participation in a multi-ethnic but race-neutral society. The Tamil leaders of that day instantly objected to that flag, calling instead for a race-neutral flag.
[4] Further, allegations are made with no reference to applicable humanitarian law. In this regard, we always consult The Law of Armed Conflict at the Operational and Tactical Level, Office of the Judge Advocate General (Canada), Doc. B-GG-005-027/AF-020 in determining whether a particular military operation by either party is legal or not.
[5] We also draw attention to the procedures involving freedom of religion and international solidarity that are relevant to support a claim of genocidal actions and policies in Sri Lanka directed at Tamils. Special Rapporteur Jahingir has made a visit to the island and has reported on serious issues in that regards, not all of which involve targeting of Tamils based on religion. However, there have been several recent events in which Tamil religious leaders were killed and Tamil Christian churches attacked. We reference the Special Rapportuer on International Solidarity because in our view the government of Sri Lanka and prominent others have poisoned international solidarity for Tamil victims. The mandate of the Working Group on Mercenaries is also invoked in this situation due to the activities of the Karuna group.
[6] Press release SG/SM/9245 of 7 April 2004.