Is the International Community

aware of the Hypocrisy of

 

SRI LANKA?

 

 

 

Appeal to the

UN Human Rights Council

 

 

 

Appel à la prise de conscience du

Conseil des Droits de l'Homme - Nations Unies

 

 

 

Llamado para reacción urgente del

Consejo de Derechos Humanos-Naciones Unidas

   

 

Website : www.tchr.net

   

9th session / 9ème session / 9° período de sesiones

08/09/2008 -- 26/09/2008

  

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)

 

 

 

 

Hypocrisy of Mahinda Rajapaksa

 

“There is no ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka

as some media mistakenly highlight”

 

Mahinda Rajapaksa to the Los Angeles world Affairs Council – 28 September 2007

 

 

“Ladies and Gentlemen, our goal remains a negotiated and honourable end to this unfortunate conflict in Sri Lanka. Our goal is to restore democracy and the rule of law to all the people of our country. 54% of Sri Lanka’s Tamil population now lives in areas other than the north and the east of the country, among the Sinhalese and other communities. There is no ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka - as some media mistakenly highlight. Sri Lanka’s security forces are fighting a terrorist group, not a particular community.”

 

“I see no military solution to the conflict. The current military operations are only intended to exert pressure on the LTTE to convince them that terrorism cannot bring them victory.”   (Excerpt)

http://www.president.gov.lk/speech_latest_28_09_2007.asp

 

* * * * *

“....We are equally committed to seeking a negotiated and sustainable solution to the conflict in Sri Lanka”

 

Mahinda Rajapaksa to the Hindustan Times Leadership Summit

at New Delhi on 13 October 2007

 

“It is necessary for me to repeat here that while my Government remains determined to fight terrorism, we are equally committed to seeking a negotiated and sustainable solution to the conflict in Sri Lanka. If those who carry arms against the State are willing to enter a process of genuine negotiation towards a peaceful and democratic solution, the government and the people will reciprocate. In this, it would not be out of place to look forward to understanding and assistance from our regional neighbours and friends, especially those with whom we share the strongest bonds throughout history. We will see in such understanding and assistance the true signs of emerging greatness”.       (Excerpt)         http://www.president.gov.lk/speech_latest_13_10_2007.asp

 

* * * * *

“We are still ready to talk,..”

Mahinda Rajapaksa’s speech at Oxford Union – 14 May 2008

 

“As our forces seek to defeat and disarm the LTTE, we are firm in our resolve to have a negotiated solution to the crisis in Sri Lanka. I do not believe in a military solution. We have attempted talks with the LTTE on several occasions – thrice since my election as the President – but they have not reciprocated. They have always left the talks with lame excuses. We are still ready to talk, once we are certain of their genuine intent for a political solution… and their readiness to give up arms”. (Excerpt) http://www.president.gov.lk/speech_New.asp?Id=51

 

* * * * *

They must give up arms, and give up terrorism”

 

Sunday Observer, 13 July 2008 - Answering a question about a statement by the LTTE's Political Wing leader, Nadesan, that the Government was not willing to reopen negotiations, President Rajapaksa said the government was ready even today.

 

"I am ready today. Let them keep their weapons down, because whenever they are weak they are ready for talks."

 

Asked about possible deadline for talks with the LTTE, President Rajapaksa said there was no deadline as it was up to the LTTE. "From my side, we are ready. Only, they must give up arms, and give up terrorism. You know the problems you have in your own country with terrorists and terrorist organisations." (Excerpt)   

http://www.defence.lk/new.asp?fname=20080713_01

* * * * *

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

    

Head Office

9, rue des Peupliers

95140 - Garges les Gonesse

FRANCE

Email : tchrgs@hotmail.com

tchrdip@hotmail.com

Fax : + 33 - 1 – 42 67 54 36

Branches

Australia, Canada, Denmark, Norway, Switzerland, The Netherlands, United Kingdom

 

Table of Contents

 Appeal                                                                                                                                   03

 

The Right to self-determination

Comparison with Kosovo                                                                                                                 

Proposed solutions to settle the ethnic conflict                                                            

Failed Talks and abrogation of pacts                                                                           

 

What Mahinda Rajapaksa said about negotiated settlement

since he became President

“Instead of killing each other, we can talk, can’t we?                                                    08

“All efforts that have been taken by successive governments… ”                                             

“We remain fully committed to talking with the LTTE......”                                                          09

“Are we frightened?”                                                                                                    

“We cannot move an inch forward other than by defeating this cruel terrorism”            

“Political negotiations and constitutional reforms have been initiated to….”                  

“Sri Lanka is not a colony of England, America or any other...”                                                10

“There are a large number of issues that could be resolved through negotiation”                     11

“I want to assure you that our Armed forces and the Police are

among the most disciplined in the world”                                                                                 

“I emphasize that we must conclude these negotiations soon”                                                12

“There is no ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka as some media mistakenly highlight”    

“....We are equally committed to seeking a negotiated and sustainable…”                    13

“We are still ready to talk,..”                                                                                         

“..How they can delay the day our troops move into Kilinochchi and Mullaitivu”            

“.......In the East, we have defeated terrorism, restored Democracy,”

“This is my deep desire for the people in the North as well.”                                         

“No reversal in Northern liberation”                                                                                14

“They must give up arms, and give up terrorism”                                                                      

           “The government gave notice to abrogate the CFA” -- Sri Lankan Ambassador in USA           

 

Recorded figures – arrest, killings, disappearances, rapes, etc                                 15

 

During Mahinda Rajapaksa’s Presidency                                                 

            Declaration of Eelam War IV                                                                                         16

Demerger of North East                                                                                                           

Failure of peace talks                                                                                                  

Chief negotiator killed                                                                                                  

Withdrew from the Ceasefire Agreement – CFA                                                                        17

IIGEP Quit Sri Lanka                                                                                                   

Sri Lanka ranked as 3rd most dangerous place for media                                                       

Sri Lanka 'plunging into lawlessness'                                                                           

Highest number of disappearances in the World                                                                       18

UN did not re-elect Sri Lanka to Human Rights Council                                                

Sri Lankan citizens cannot seek remedy from the UN Human Rights Committee                      

Now, dividing the Sinhalese on religious lines – ‘Sunday Leader’                               

Sri Lanka is a failed State                                                                                           

Minister threatening Embassy and assaulting journalists                                                          

Divide and rule among displaced                                                                                  19

Ahmadiyya Muslim Community                                                                                     

Devolution package drafted by the APC                                                                                  

Sri Lanka rights activists face growing dangers                                                            

Human Rights Defenders harassed and killed                                                             

 

1

 

Three of NESOHR’s founder members killed                                                                 20

Who killed Joseph Pararajasingham?                                                                          

Paramilitary leader smuggled into UK                                                                          

Branded as “Terrorist Supporters”                                                                           21

The war president – Economist                                                                                  

Truth is the first casualty of war - Summary                                                            

 

Sinhala Tamil relationship in Sri Lanka

Sinhala Buddhists dominate Sri Lanka                                                                         23

“Really if I starve the Tamils………” - J. R. Jeyawardena         

``Minorities are like creepers ........'' – D. B. Wijetunga                                                 

“Minority community is not ...........” – Chandrika Kumaratunga           

Man who fathered the Eelam Concept – by S. Sivanayagam                                     24

The Sri Lankan Situation                                                                                             

The Question the Sinhala Nation asks at Dawn            - “What is the Relationship                   26

of Rama and Sita?”                                         

Do you think the LTTE is interested in peace at all?                                                     28

 

Internationally

Opinion poll in Tamil Nadu in India                                                                            29

Calls for independent Tamil Eelam in Sri Lanka                                                           

Majority in Tamil Nadu supports LTTE                                                               30

 

            Indian Fishermen Harassed and arrested by Sri Lanka Navy

Eight Indian fishermen missing                                                                         31       

Restrain your fishermen, Rajapaksa tells Manmohan                                       

Sri Lanka frees 300 Indian trawlers                                                                 

Sri Lanka navy arrests 19 Indian fishermen                                                     

India, Sri Lanka arrest 46 fishermen                                                                

Katchathivu - Ex-Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu threatens to move Supreme Court        32

Pakistan to help in Colombo’s final battle against Tigers                                        

Germany washes hands off Lanka                                                                              33

PM hits back at West                                                                                                 

 

Displacement

Fighting intensifies in Sri Lanka                                                                                                34

Sri Lankan bishop: ‘Help war refugees’                                                                                    

Protect the people of Wanni - Roman Catholic Diocese of Jaffna                               35

IDPs flourish while locals languish in Puttlam                                                                36

 

Freedom of Expression

            Call for release of website editor                                                                                               39

A Story About a Tamil Called Tissainayagam                                                               

More than 150 days of detention without charges:                                                       40
Tissainayagam transferred to remand prison from TID                                                  41

 

Annexes

Archbishop of Colombo On the Vatican Radio news report published locally                42

Why is the International Community silent?-- Dr Vickramabahu Karunaratna             

Clampdown on International NGOs                                                                              43

Lanka pays Washington lobbyists to clean her image – ‘Sunday Leader’                                45

A genocide inquiry? -- Bruce Fein                                                                                49

Black July 1983 - an eyewitness account - N.Shanmugathasan,                                              50

Leader, Ceylon Communist Party (Maoist)                                   

 

TCHR summary, September 2007 – June 2008 (Names, Dates, Place of incidents etc)

            Arbitrary arrest / detention                                Sept.2007 – Dec.2007                                   

-do-                                                     Jan.2008 – June 2008                                   

Extra judicial killings / summary executions -     Sept.2007 – Dec.2007                                   

                        -do-                                                     Jan.2008 – June 2008                                   

            Enforced or involuntary disappearances          Sept.2007 – Dec.2007                                   

-do-                                                     Jan.2008 – June 2008                                   

            Rape / Torture and others                                Sept.2007 – Dec.2007                                   

 

2

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    8 September 2008

The President

Members and Delegates

Human Rights Council - 9th Session

United Nations

1211 Geneva 10, Switzerland

 

Distinguished Sirs / Mesdames

 

First of all, we extend our congratulations to you for your appointment as the Chairperson of the 9th session and the following sessions. We regularly report on the human rights violations taking place in the Island of Sri Lanka. Our reporting is based on indisputable facts, the authentic details of which we receive from our sources directly from the North East and other parts of the Island. The United Nations human rights monitoring bodies have appreciated the veracity of our reporting.

 

On a daily basis, over a hundred Tamils are being arrested and detained. The security forces and paramilitaries are given a free hand to abduct, arrest, rape and carry out arbitrary killings. Aerial bombing and artillery attacks on the civilian population are causing severe problems in the North.

 

The situation of the Internally Displaced People (IDPs) in the North East remains critical. Press freedom and freedom of expression are in peril in Sri Lanka. Journalists are arrested, tortured, abducted, disappeared and killed over-night.

 

International human rights law and international humanitarian law are being massively violated by Sri Lanka.

 

Impunity is a very serious problem. Many notorious human rights violators in the Security forces especially in the Army, Police and the Paramilitary have received the best promotions and appointments as Ministers and to high profile jobs in the government. The government of Sri Lanka encourages and allows the perpetrators to move freely in society - and the violations continue.

 

In the Northeast the human rights situation has been deteriorating for many long years. Genocide, cultural genocide, multiple displacements are occurring and a systematic economic embargo to the North East is starving the people.

 

First hand witnesses to these Crimes against humanity - hospitals full of child and adult casualties, cemeteries full of murdered bodies, camps full of displaced people, people starving due to the economic embargo and buildings destroyed in all parts of North East. The security forces have created “High Security Zones” in the densely populated residential areas of the Northeast and are occupying civilian homes and public buildings.

 

Misinformation is disseminated locally and internationally by the Sri Lankan government, to distort the real picture of what is happening in Sri Lanka.

 

Sirs / Mesdames, members and delegates will be aware that in October 2006, Diplomats of the European Union took the initiative and Finland as the holder of the EU presidency tabled a draft decision 2006/.....‖ (A/HRC/2/L.37) on Sri Lanka. Unfortunately, as anticipated by many, this was unsuccessful in earlier sessions. We fervently hope it will be successful during the current session. We urgently appeal to you and other distinguished delegates to seriously consider all available mechanisms to ensure rigorous and timely international scrutiny.

 

In addition, we urge this session to take immediate steps and prompt action to alleviate the humanitarian catastrophe that is being deliberately inflicted by the government of Sri Lanka on civilians in the North East.

 

Sir, being the President of the 9th session of the Human Rights Council, you can see that the international community is failing to take action against a government which even claims, “There is no ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka as some media mistakenly highlight” (Mahinda Rajapaksa to the Los Angeles world Affairs Council – 28 September 2007) and which perpetrates war crimes and crimes against humanity against a people who have been struggling for their Right to Self-determination for many decades.

 

We appeal to you to take immediate action during this session of the Human Rights Council.

 

 

Yours sincerely

 

S. V. Kirubaharan

General Secretary                                                      3

 

 

The Right to Self-determination

Tamils of Sri Lanka (Ceylon)

 

Comparison with Kosovo

 

Tamil Centre for Human Rights – TCHR/CTDH – March 2008

 

4

 

ICCPR*              -           International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights

ICESCR             -           International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights

ICERD               -           International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination

CEDAW*            -           Convention on the elimination of Discrimination against Women

CAT                  -           Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment....

CRC*                 -           Convention on the Rights of the Child

* optional protocols

5

Proposed solutions to settle the ethnic conflict

 

Tamil Centre for Human Rights – TCHR/CTDH – March 2008

 

Year               Type of political solution                          Result

 

1957                Banda-Chelva pact – Regional Councils                                   Unilaterally abrogated by GOSL

1965                Dudley-Chelva pact – District Councils                          Unilaterally abrogated GOSL

 

1970                Proposals placed by the Tamil Federal Party                Rejected by the GOSL

                        (A federal form of government with an autonomous

Tamil-Muslims state and three autonomous Sinhala states)

1979                Presidential Commission to report on                            This did not fulfil the Tamils’ aspirations.

                        (creation of District Development Councils)                   Not intended to provide a different

political or administrative structure for any particular part of the country

1983                All Party Conference                                                    TULF rejected these proposals as it was

                        (Proposals merely extended the scheme of                         not the originally formulated set of

                        decentralization at District level to the                                proposals, known as Annexure – C.

                        Provincial level with limited co-ordination)

 

1985                In Thimpu - The devolution proposal by Sri Lanka        Rejected by the Tamil representatives

(District councils without executive power)

Thimpu (principle) proposal placed by Tamils                      Rejected by the GOSL

(Homeland, Nationhood, Right to self-determination     Talks collapsed because while the talks

and equal rights           )                                                           take place Sri Lanka renewed its military

offensive in the North East

                                                                                                           

1986                “19 December” proposal           s by Indian envoys                   GOSL expressed reservations and

                        (Formation of a new Eastern Province by                            eventually rejected this proposal.

excising Sinhalese majority areas and the creation

of two Tamil Provincial Councils in the Northern and

the reconstituted Eastern Province)

 

1987                Indo-Lanka Accord (Provincial Councils)                                   After 18 years, the Sri Lanka

                        (North and Eastern Provinces were merged under                Supreme Court rejected this merger

                        this accord. 95% Tamils didn’t support this accord)             16 October 2006

                       

1989-90           Premadasa Talks                                                         The holding of fresh elections in North East

(LTTE formed a political party-PFLT                                    never took place. Prevented LTTE from

and prepared to contest in the elections)                                demonstrating its support from the people

in North East

 

1992-93           Parliamentary Select Committee Reports                      Eyewash to International Community                            (President D.B.Wijetunga said that there                             No progress was made

is no 'ethnic problem')

                                   

1995                Devolution Package                                                     Rejected by Buddhist Maha Sanga and

                        (Refused to recognise the existence of the                         other Sinhala political parties

Tamil homeland, rejected an asymmetric approach,

continued to treat all the provinces in the same way)

 

2003                 ISGA proposal by LTTE                                                    Rejected by the GOSL and other

                        (Interim Self-Governing Administration)                         extreme Sinhala political parties

 

2005                Post Tsunami Operational Management                                   Rejected by the Sri Lanka

Structure – PTOMS                                                      Supreme Court

                       

2007                All Party Conference*                                                   Not ALL political parties invited to

Sinhala political parities UNP, JVP, JHU                       participate in its discussions.

strongly against its proposals                                       Tamil National Alliance, especially

was kept away.

*Mr. N. Satyendra, a scholar and legal expert who participated in the earlier political negotiations with GOSL, described the legislation as a "comic opera." The provisions of the 13th Amendment are impossibly "burlesque and farcical," he stated. Further Parliamentarians and academics described this proposal as ‘political mockery’.

GOSL = Government of Sri Lanka                                                6

Failed Talks and abrogation of pacts

Tamil Centre for Human Rights – TCHR/CTDH – March 2008

 

Year               Talks between                                               Result            Reason/Consequence

 

1927                Sir Ponnambalam and Sinhala leader              Failed               Tamils’ point of view ignored

                        (Recommendations of Donoughmore Commission)

 

1957                S.J.V. Chelvanayagam and Bandaranayke      Pact signed      ‘Banda-Chelva’ pact

(In 1956 Sinhala Only act introduced by the PM                               unilaterally abrogated by Prime

Proposal for Regional Councils)                                                     Minister SWRD Bandaranayke

 

1965                Chelvanayagam and Dudley Senanayake        Pact signed      ‘Banda-Dudley’ pact

(Proposal for Establishment of District Councils)                              unilaterally abrogated by Prime

                                                                                                Minister Dudley Senanayake

 

1971                Tamil Leaders and Srimavo BandaranayakePM           Failed               Republican constitution was

(Amendments to Republican constitution)                                        passed in 1972 without the support of Tamil parties

 

1977-1982       TULF and President J.R. Jayawardena                        Failed               The July 1983 riots followed.

(In July 1977 general elections Tamil people                                                marking the beginning of Eelam

gave a mandate to the Tamil United Liberation                                 War - I

Front - TULF, to exercise the “Right to

Self-determination” in the North East)

 

1985                Tamil activists including the LTTE and GOSL   Failed               GOSL rejected the Thimpu

(Thimbu talks under Indian facilitation)                                            principle of Tamil homeland, Nationhood, Right to self-determination and Equal rights

 

1986                LTTE Leader and President J.R. Jayawardena            Failed               Jeyawardena refused to recognise

                        (Talks mediated by Indian Prime minister                                        the right to self-determination

in Bangalore, India)                                                                     and the homeland of the Tamils

 

1987                            India and Sri Lanka (Accord)                            Signed             Accord signed, without any

(under the guise of settling the Tamil ethnic                                                 consultation with Tamils, nor the conflict in Sri Lanka.)                                                               LTTE, the main party to conflict.          

                                                                                                            95% Tamils didn’t            support this accord.

Under this accord merger of North Eastern

province took place on 8 Sep.1988. But,

after exactly 18 years, The Supreme Court

delivered its political judgement

on 16 October 2006, stating that the merger

of these two provinces was invalid.

 

1989                LTTE and President Premadasa                      Failed               GOSL prevented International

(LTTE formed a political party and named it,                             Community knowing the support

“People’s Front of the Liberation Tigers -PFLT”.                                    for the LTTE among the Tamils.

It was registered with the Election officials

of Sri Lanka.)                                                                           Beginning of Eelam war-II.

 

1994                LTTE and President Kumaratunga GOSL        Failed               Promised lifting of Economic

(President Chandrika and the LTTE                                         embargo dragged on and on.

signed an agreement for                                                         

cessation of hostilities )                                                                        Beginning of Eelam war-III

 

2002-2004       LTTE and Ranil Wickremasinghe PM                Failed               The GOSL failed to implement the

                                                                                                agreed outcomes of peace talks

(Under the facilitation of Norway                                               and the CFA. Several rounds of

a Cease Fire Agreement - CFA was signed                              negotiations took place in

on 22 February 2002 between the                                          Thailand, Norway and Germany

LTTE and government of Sri Lanka.)                                       

7

 

Year               Talks between                                               Result            Reason /Consequence

                                               

2005                LTTE and President Kumaratunga                   Failed               By a political judgement from the

with the aim of ensuring equal                                                  Supreme Court, PTOMS was made

distribution of Tsunami aid to                                                    null and void – 15 July 2005

                        the worst affected North East

 

(Post Tsunami Operational Management                                 

Structure – PTOMS was signed between                                        

the GOSL and the LTTE – 24 June 2005)                                                   

                                                           

2006                LTTE and President Mahinda Rajapaksa         Failed               GOSL failed to implement

February &       (Talks in Geneva, Switzerland                                                  the agreed outcomes of                      

October                        on Paramilitary activities)                                                          Geneva talks in February

 

                                                                                                2006 April - Beginning of Eelam                                                                                                         War – IV

 

2008 January                                                                                                   Sri Lanka officially withdrew from the CFA on 3 January 2008

GOSL = Government of Sri Lanka

 

* * * * * * *

 

What Mahinda Rajapaksa said about negotiated settlement

since he became President - 19 November 2005

 

“Instead of killing each other, we can talk, can’t we? ”

Mahinda Rajapaksa, President of Sri Lanka in an interview with SPIEGEL - February 21, 2006

 

Rajapaksa: “It was precisely the violence of the last months, which has given me many sleepless nights since I came to office in November last year, that motivated me to pick up negotiations again. We’re all human beings, Tamils and Sinhalese. Instead of killing each other, we can talk, can’t we? ”

 

Rajapaksa: “I would like to make one thing very clear. My government knows nothing about such "paramilitaries" or even "Karuna". The Norwegian peace monitors have themselves clarified that the Sri Lankan army has nothing to do with any armed groups operating in eastern Sri Lanka. Still, my government is committed to disarming such groups and we have already begun to do so”.

 

Rajapaksa: “I became a member of parliament at age 24 and have consistently worked among the poor, common people ever since. Don't forget, I'm also a human rights lawyer and respect all human beings, be they Tamils or Sinhalese. I want one country, I want lasting peace and I believe that talks are the only way out”.       (Excerpt) http://www.spiegel.de/international/spiegel/0,1518,402078,00.html

 

 

“All efforts that have been taken by successive governments… ”

 

President Mahinda Rajapaksa addressing the XIVth Summit of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) in Havana, Cuba - 16th September 2006

 

“Terrorism and liberation differ from each other, as much as the sky differs from the earth. Liberation, unlike terrorism, is a creative and a humane force. It is a humane vehicle of new visions for the progressive change of power structures on the one side and socio-economic structures on the other. Terrorism, by contrast, is a destructive force, - a de-humanizing force, - that cannot in any way be justified”.

 

“All efforts that have been taken by successive governments, including mine, to enter into dialogue with this group, have so far failed. Yet, even in the face of extreme provocation, we continue in our attempts to transform this dictatorial terrorist group that engages in violence, into a political force that would engage peacefully with the State and with other political parties and participate in a democratic political process”. (Excerpt)

http://www.president.gov.lk/speech_latest_16_09_2006.asp

8

 

“We remain fully committed to talking with the LTTE

either directly or through a facilitator”

 

President Rajapaksa at the 61^st Session of the UN General Assembly – 20 September 2006

 

“Our government firmly believes that terrorism cannot be eliminated through military means alone. We remain fully committed to talking with the LTTE either directly or through a facilitator. It is our hope that the LTTE will transform itself from a terrorist outfit to one that is committed to dialogue and democracy. Our government stands ready to respond to any display of goodwill and a move towards a non-violent approach”.

 

“We continue to take unilateral humanitarian measures which extend even to LTTE cadres. As a responsible government, we will continue to provide unhindered access to conflict affected areas to the ICRC, to UN Agencies and to other recognized humanitarian agencies”. (Excerpts)

http://www.un.org/webcast/ga/61/pdfs/sri_lanka-e.pdf

 

 

Are we frightened?

 

Mahinda Rajapaksa’s speech at "Deyata Kirula", Crowning the People - at Weerawila

19th November 2006

 

“………….On the other hand look at the security of this blessed land. Are we subdued by any one's threats? Are we frightened? Have we humiliated or made cowards of our heroic soldiers before the LTTE terrorists who are engaged in cruel acts to destroy the brotherhood of Sinhala, Tamil and Muslims who lived in harmony for centuries? I said then that I will not allow the Muslims living in the East to be hostages to the LTTE. Haven't we honoured our promise? The so called ruthless terrorists of the world are now beleaguered in 5- 6 villages in the East. I will repeat today what said introducing Mahinda Chintanaya. I love this land of my birth more than anything else. I am not prepared to be intimidated by anyone who is powerful, any invader or terrorist to divide or betray this noble land. That much is sure”. (Excerpt)          http://www.president.gov.lk/speech_16.asp

 

 

 

“We cannot move an inch forward other than

by defeating this cruel terrorism”

Address to the Nation by Mahinda Rajapaksa on December 06, 2006

“I am not prepared to belittle the responsibility of State you have respectfully entrusted to me, or compromise its sovereignty, in the face of the LTTE’s inflexible terrorism. The entire world should reject the LTTE’s policy of treating the Ceasefire monitors as mere messengers”.

 

“We cannot move an inch forward other than by defeating this cruel terrorism that is intertwined with the common destiny of my country and the Sri Lankan nation. I am happy to be able to be committed to this task. I am happier still by the support extended to us for this purpose by the entire nation. The mental satisfaction from this alone would suffice to take our lives forward. This is the lesson I have been taught by my people and the history of my country”. (Excerpt)                     http://www.president.gov.lk/speech_13.asp

 

 

“Political negotiations and constitutional reforms have been initiated to address concerns of all communities”

 

President Mahinda Rajapaksa at the G - 11 Summit in Jordan on 19th May 2007

 

“Sri Lanka has suffered heavily from terrorism. We have been working together with the global community to deal with terrorism. We have also firmly confronted senseless terrorist violence. Not only we seek to defeat terrorism, but also to liberate the people who have become victims of terrorism. In this exercise, we are fully committed to safeguarding human rights and democracy. Political negotiations and constitutional reforms have been initiated to address concerns of all communities”. (Excerpt)            http://www.president.gov.lk/speech_.asp

 

9

 

 

“Sri Lanka is not a colony of England, America or any other...”

 

Mahinda Rajapaksa in an interview with Al Jazeera’s

101 East presenter Teymoor Nabili – 1 June 2007

 

Is there any level of dialogue at all between your government and the LTTE right now?

 

Actually, at present there are no talks at any level. As a government we cannot have talks. We say that we are ready for talks always.

 

You don’t see any value in dialogue?

 

We are always ready for talks. Always, even today. Even while the fighting goes on, I am ready for talks. Even being armed, the way they are behaving today, we are ready to go forward.

 

So you are saying that you think the Sri Lankan people would prefer a defeat of the LTTE first?

 

First. Opinion polls seem to suggest that peace is much more important to the Sri Lankan people. For the people, LTTE, peace - the people want peace that is the truth, without defeating the LTTE, without defeating the terrorism of the LTTE. There is no politics in this. There is a political side and terrorism here. This is a terrorist group. The people are aware that as long as a terrorist organization exists, that negotiations will not be successful. They are making use of the negotiations to strengthen themselves, to bring in arms. This is a historical fact, historically because the people have been battered. Today we have to be very careful.

 

So let me be clear on this: what you’re saying is that there must first be military victory and then peace talks?

 

No. That is not what I hope for. Until the terrorists are weakened, they will not come for talks. As long as they think they are strong, they will try to break up the country. Today, what we hope is to fulfil the aspirations of the Tamil people.

 

What do you mean by weakened? At what point will you accept that the Tamil Tigers are weakened because it’s now been almost a year of …

 

Even under today’s circumstances. Clearly said, what the people expect. But what I expect is not that. I said that even today I am ready to negotiate, very clearly. My argument is that terrorism has to be got rid off. We cannot kneel down to that. I am not prepared to kneel down to their arms capability. But I am committed to ensuring the rights of the Tamil people. That I will achieve, somehow.

 

I apologise, I am not really following you. You say that terrorism must be defeated but you don’t want, you don’t think that a military victory is necessary?

 

Absolutely, a victory is essential against terrorism. That is a different story. But because we need to meet the aspirations of the Tamil people, I am prepared to go for talks, with the terrorists. I have come to that point. Has any other world leader said that?

 

The message I am hearing from you right now is that your military strategy is going to continue until the Tigers come to the table and ask for negotiations and lay down their arms.

 

 

No. I am ready to talk even while they carry arms. Even while they fight, if they want to negotiate with me, and reach a solution, I am ready for that too.

 

Let me rephrase then. What you are saying is that the government’s military strategy will continue as is, until you get a signal from Pirabhakaran that he is willing to talk and he is willing to stop his military action first?

 

If they do not attack me, I will not attack. If they stay where they are, keeping their arms, I have no problem with that. But, they must agree to a political solution. To achieve the aspirations of the Tamil people, and to achieve the aspirations of the people of this country, I am prepared. Because I will not divide people as Tamils, Muslims or Sinhalese.

 

Richard Boucher visited Sri Lanka recently and he said there are two aspects that concern us, abductions and killings and the freedom of the press. Other human rights organizations have also levelled criticisms at the forces, armed forces.

10

 

Actually, today I am not prepared to accept that there are human rights violations as has been reported. When such accusations are made, I, the forces, the police …

 

Are you willing to accept that there are violations of human rights occurring?

 

Knowingly, a state will not violate human rights, abduct people. That must be stated very clearly. Our forces are a very disciplined force. Not seen in any other country. Not a single civilian was injured when we took Vakarai. We know that in certain instances when bombs are dropped in other countries, people are killed, children die. We do not behave like that. We did not do that. We protected every civilian.

 

The ambassador designate to the EU from Sri Lanka has been speaking about his concerns with the situation; that perhaps Europe, and maybe even a Democratic US President after the next election, may begin to support either a humanitarian intervention in Sri Lanka, or a perhaps a slightly stronger intervention in Sri Lanka. Perhaps even ultimately a Bosnia-style solution. Is that a fear that you have?

 

I believe in this country, for the problem of this country, another country cannot force a solution. To find a solution for this country, it is not Europe that can help. It is India that can find a solution. India is our neighbour. It is essential for the people of India. Therefore I believe, that it is the Indian government that can help us with this question.

 

But what would you like India to do today?

 

To offer a solution to this problem, according to the present situation, to help the Tamil people, India ’s support is necessary. India must work with this government. It has worked, and my belief is that there must be more support from the Indian government. Sri Lanka is not a colony of England, America or any other country. Sri Lanka is a sovereign state. So when they get involved it is important that they do not interfere in the internal affairs of this country.

(Excerpt)         http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2007/06/2008525184915163734.html

 

 

“There are a large number of issues

that could be resolved through negotiation”

 

Mahinda Rajapaksa’s speech on Ranaviru (War Heroes) Commemoration Day – 7 June 2007

 

“There are a large number of issues that could be resolved through negotiation. We are ready for it at any time. We are genuinely ready. It is not possible for us to give an opportunity to strengthen terrorism. We are not ready to sign fake agreements. I declare without fear that we are not at all prepared to betray the victories achieved by us and our heroes of war”. (Excerpt)

http://www.president.gov.lk/speech_2007_06_07.asp

 

 

“I want to assure you that our Armed forces and the Police are among the most disciplined in the world”

President Mahinda Rajapaksa at the 96th Session of the

International Labour Conference in Geneva – 15 June 2007

 

“Terrorism has no place in the contemporary world. As a government, we are not prepared, at any cost, to bow down to terrorism. Would any of your governments submit to terrorism had they been in our position? However, we are determined that in a democracy like ours where political views can be expressed freely, political objectives must be realised through negotiation and dialogue and through compromise. There can be no room for extremism, and even less for violence”.

 

“Today, there is a misunderstanding and false propaganda that we are involved in ethnic cleansing. This is absolutely false. I must remind this august assembly that it is the LTTE which resorted to heavy ethnic cleansing from the early nineteen eighties...”

 

“Those countries afflicted with the menace of terrorism know very well what they have to undergo. These terrorist outfits cannot be contained easily. Our Armed Forces and the Police have had to be extra smart in containing the LTTE. I want to assure you that our Armed forces and the Police are among the most disciplined in the world, and they have great respect for human rights. Any lapses on their part will be promptly investigated and corrective action taken. But I am sad to say that there has been so much of false propaganda against the Sri Lankan Armed forces and the Police that is being taken so seriously by the rest of the world”.

11

 

“We do not believe in a military solution. Therefore, I invited all democratic political parties in Parliament to form an All Party Conference, the APC. The purpose of the APC is to formulate political proposals, to ensure political reform and through that address the grievances of the minorities. An All Party Representative Committee is in the process of examining an array of proposals that have been submitted. I firmly believe that the outcome of this process will be satisfactory. We look to our friends around the world to assist in our hour of need”.

 

“My party, the Sri Lanka Freedom Party, also submitted a set of proposals which proposed devolution to the district level. Prior to the establishment of Provincial Councils in 1988, government effectively dealt with people's issues with a network of 25 district secretariats. In order to devolve power to the lowest level possible, the SLFP proposed the District level devolution, while creating a Grama Rajya, quite similar to the Panchyati Raj system in India. We strongly believe that people at the grass-root level will be truly empowered if we adopt the district level devolution”. (Excerpt)                   http://www.president.gov.lk/speech_1.asp

 

 

“I emphasize that we must conclude these negotiations soon”

 

President Rajapaksa at the 62nd session of the UN General Assembly – 25 September 2007

 

“We launched military operations only to exert pressure on terrorists in order to convince them that it will not be possible for them to obtain a military victory. Our goal remains a negotiated and honourable end to this unfortunate conflict. I must say that the All Party Representative Committee is working successfully towards it”.

 

“Guided by the principles of Buddhism, We have long respected the rights of our fellow human beings. Therefore, it had not been necessary for us to experience global wars or the deaths of millions to, learn to recognize their value. My country has no record of inflicting misery on fellow human beings for the purpose of empire building, for commercial advantage or for religious righteousness”.

 

“Terrorism anywhere is terrorism. There is nothing good in terrorism. Sri Lanka has taken an upfront position in the global community’s efforts to deal with terrorism. We have become party to 11 of 13 UN Conventions for the suppression of various acts of terrorism.  We think that the Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism, which in our view remains a priority, is only limited to endless discussion. I emphasize that we must conclude these negotiations soon”. 

 

“At this point, we must focus our attention on the Palestinians who are striving for an independent state.  The World community must help them to manage their country without any undue influence”.

 

“In these sessions, I believe that our obligation as global leaders is to commit ourselves to programs that will eradicate terrorism, establish human welfare oriented development, establish democracy and ensure there is hope for lower income groups for economic development.  Accordingly, I appeal to the global community to make the 62nd session the beginning of a new chapter rather than just another session”.

http://www.president.gov.lk/news.asp?newsID=269

(Note: This is a translation from the original text delivered in Sinhala) (Excerpt)

 

“There is no ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka

as some media mistakenly highlight”

 

Mahinda Rajapaksa to the Los Angeles world Affairs Council – 28 September 2007

 

 

“Ladies and Gentlemen, our goal remains a negotiated and honourable end to this unfortunate conflict in Sri Lanka. Our goal is to restore democracy and the rule of law to all the people of our country. 54% of Sri Lanka’s Tamil population now lives in areas other than the north and the east of the country, among the Sinhalese and other communities. There is no ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka - as some media mistakenly highlight. Sri Lanka’s security forces are fighting a terrorist group, not a particular community.”

 

“I see no military solution to the conflict. The current military operations are only intended to exert pressure on the LTTE to convince them that terrorism cannot bring them victory.”   (Excerpt)

http://www.president.gov.lk/speech_latest_28_09_2007.asp

 

 

12

 

“....We are equally committed to seeking a negotiated and sustainable solution to the conflict in Sri Lanka”

 

Mahinda Rajapaksa to the Hindustan Times Leadership Summit at New Delhi on 13 October 2007

 

“It is necessary for me to repeat here that while my Government remains determined to fight terrorism, we are equally committed to seeking a negotiated and sustainable solution to the conflict in Sri Lanka. If those who carry arms against the State are willing to enter a process of genuine negotiation towards a peaceful and democratic solution, the government and the people will reciprocate. In this, it would not be out of place to look forward to understanding and assistance from our regional neighbours and friends, especially those with whom we share the strongest bonds throughout history. We will see in such understanding and assistance the true signs of emerging greatness”.       (Excerpt)         http://www.president.gov.lk/speech_latest_13_10_2007.asp

 

 

“We are still ready to talk,..”

Mahind Rajapaksa’s speech at Oxford Union – 14 May 2008

 

“As our forces seek to defeat and disarm the LTTE, we are firm in our resolve to have a negotiated solution to the crisis in Sri Lanka. I do not believe in a military solution. We have attempted talks with the LTTE on several occasions – thrice since my election as the President – but they have not reciprocated. They have always left the talks with lame excuses. We are still ready to talk, once we are certain of their genuine intent for a political solution… and their readiness to give up arms”. (Excerpt)                        http://www.president.gov.lk/speech_New.asp?Id=51

 

 

“how they can delay the day our troops move into

Kilinochchi and Mullaitivu”

 

Mahinda Rajapaksa at the National War Heroes Day celebrations

at Sri Jayawardenapura, Kotte on June 07, 2008

 

“........ They are trying to get us entrapped. They are trying to provoke the people, fan communalism and benefit by it. That is their present necessity. The terrorists have plenty of time to plot how they can delay the day our troops move into Kilinochchi and Mullaitivu. That is their great need. We have the need to give the Tami people in Kilinochchi and Mullaitivu their democratic rights, as we did for the people in the East. But because the terrorists do not want that, they seek to create trouble in other areas and gain time to their advantage. It is to gain time that they seek to overthrow the government, use human rights and various other means to psychologically weaken us, and seek to defeat us by cutting off aid. All this is done to gain time for their purposes. But we do not have the time. We have to finish this battle against terrorism soon”. (Excerpt)  

http://www.president.gov.lk/speech_New.asp?Id=54

 

 

“.......In the East, we have defeated terrorism, restored Democracy,”

“This is my deep desire for the people in the North as well.”

 

Rajapaksa’s speech in the SAARC Conference in Colombo – 2 August 2008

 

“We, in South Asia share a rich and common heritage, a heritage of understanding and of tolerance, a heritage that respects learning and wisdom, and takes pride in sharing the bounties of nature. But for this great heritage that transcends differences and upholds the value of a shared purpose and existence, our diverse cultures, languages and religious traditions could have made us the most divided region in the world.   Instead, by and large we see a great harmony among our peoples”.

 

“In my own country, the impact of this common heritage is best seen today in what we have achieved in the East, where we have defeated terrorism, restored democracy, elected a Chief Minister from a minority community who was a former child soldier, and, most of all, where the Sinhalese, Tamil and Muslim communities live together, work together, and together seek the common goals of progress and prosperity. This indeed is a unique transformation within a short span of one year.  This is my deep desire for the people in the North as well”. (Excerpt)

http://www.president.gov.lk/speech_New.asp?Id=55

 

 

13

 

 

No reversal in Northern liberation - President

 

Daily News, 19 August 2008 - President Mahinda Rajapaksa asserted that after the lapse of a prolonged period of absolute tolerance and patience and failed negotiations with the LTTE, his Government eventually responded in the language best understood by the terrorists with the strong resolve of not turning back until the very last terrorist is captured.

 

President Rajapaksa made this assertion when he presided and addressed a mammoth and colourful rally at the Ruwanwella Esplanade yesterday, in support of the UPFA candidates contesting the forthcoming Sabaragamuwa Provincial Council elections on August 23.

 

“We liberated the Eastern Province and will liberate the North too very shortly. There is no turning back under any circumstances or influence now, until every inch of land is recaptured and each and every terrorist is killed or captured. Our Armed Forces are fighting the terrorists to protect our Motherland at the risk of their lives,” the President said. (Excerpt)           http://www.dailynews.lk/2008/08/19/news01.asp

 

 

They must give up arms, and give up terrorism”

 

Sunday Observer, 13 July 2008 - Answering a question about a statement by the LTTE's Political Wing leader, Nadesan, that the Government was not willing to reopen negotiations, President Rajapaksa said the government was ready even today.

 

"I am ready today. Let them keep their weapons down, because whenever they are weak they are ready for talks."

 

Asked about possible deadline for talks with the LTTE, President Rajapaksa said there was no deadline as it was up to the LTTE. "From my side, we are ready. Only, they must give up arms, and give up terrorism. You know the problems you have in your own country with terrorists and terrorist organisations." (Excerpt)   

http://www.defence.lk/new.asp?fname=20080713_01

 

 

“The government gave notice to abrogate the CFA”

Address by Ambassador Bernard Goonetilleke

at Capitol Hill, Washington DC - 25 January 2008

 

The Ceasefire Agreement

 

Sri Lanka’s Ceasefire agreement or the CFA and its recent abrogation, has been very much in the news these days. My familiarity with the CFA runs back to the time of its presentation in draft form by Norway, to its signature in February 2002, to its implementation, or more to the point, its brazen violation by the LTTE, from day one. I recall my critical remark in early November 2005, that a glaring defect of the CFA was the inordinate haste of its conclusion, denying the opportunity, particularly to the Sri Lanka government, to deeply scrutinize it.

 

The eagerness to conclude the CFA with least delay, was due to the fact, that by Christmas 2001, the government had agreed to an informal ceasefire initiated by the LTTE, and Norway, in its wisdom, considered it desirable to have a formal agreement signed before the informal ceasefire began to unravel. In retrospect, at least some of the CFA’s shortcomings could have been addressed, if the parties had more time to consider the ramifications of individual articles of the agreement, including practicability of timelines indicated in the CFA.

 

On January 3, 2008, the government gave notice to abrogate the CFA, which became operational on January 17, 2008. Since then, many close observers of Sri Lanka’s conflict and the peace process, Co-Chairs of the Tokyo Donor Conference viz. Norway, Japan, the US and the EU, other friends of Sri Lanka and the civil society, have expressed concern. The sentiments commonly expressed have been that withdrawal from the CFA would escalate fighting, leading to heavy civilian casualties and violation of human rights, that there is no military solution to the conflict, that a solution can be found only through negotiation, and that parties to the conflict should return to the CFA.       (Excerpt)

http://www.slembassyusa.org/statements/2008/the_ceasefire_25jan08.html

                                                                                             

 

 

14

 

 

 

 

During Mahinda Rajapaksa’s Presidency

 

Eelam War IV. Renewed hostilities began on 26 July 2006 when Sri Lanka Air Force fighter jets bombed several LTTE camps around Mavil in Trincomalee.

 

On 6 December 2006 the government of Sri Lanka re-instated the PTA, thus making it crystal clear that it had withdrawn from the CFA – tantamount to an official declaration of Eelam War IV by Sri Lanka.

 

On 29 July 1987, the “Indo-Lanka” pact was signed between Sri Lanka and India, under the guise of settling the Tamil ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka. Under this accord, by a special decree of the Executive President of Sri Lanka, the merger of the North Eastern province took place on 8 September 1988.

 

But, after exactly 18 years of this merger, the JVP filed a case in the Supreme Court, demanding the de-merging of these two provinces. The Supreme Court delivered its biased political decision on this case on 16 October 2006, stating that the merger of these two provinces by the then President was invalid. Once again another agreement/accord, in this case one that even had international status, was abrogated with the biased legal support of the Supreme court.

Failure of peace talks

 

Due to pressure from the International community, President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s government agreed to have peace talks in Geneva which took place in February 2006. During the talks, the government of Sri Lanka agreed to abide by the CFA, including its clause 1.8, and disarm paramilitary groups operating in army-controlled areas.

 

However, when the 2^nd round of talks took place in Geneva in October 2006, the talks failed, as the government of Sri Lanka had not implemented what had been agreed in the first round of Geneva talks. The international community, especially Norway and Switzerland witnessed this at close hand.

 

Predictable Failure

The two-day talks held between the Government of Sri Lanka and Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) at Geneva in Switzerland on October 28-29, 2006, ended without any conclusive result and without an agreement on future engagement. The outcome – or lack thereof – reaffirmed the fact that the dialogue remains essentially tactical on both sides, and seeks principally to establish a facade to appease the international community. (Excerpt)

http://www.durdesh.net/news/Article347.html

 

Sri Lankan talks end in failure

BBC News, 29 October 2006 - Talks between Sri Lanka's government and Tamil Tiger rebels aimed at averting a return to war have ended without agreement. Norwegian mediator Erik Solheim said no deal had been reached on how to address the humanitarian crisis and no dates had been set for new negotiations.

 

The two-day talks in Geneva had been intended to shore up the 2002 ceasefire amid a major upsurge of fighting. They were the first time the two sides had met in eight months. (Excerpt)

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/6090866.stm

 

Chief negotiator killed

The Chief negotiator of the LTTE, S. P. Thamilselvan who took part in many of the talks was killed in an aerial bombing by the Sri Lanka Airforce on 2 November 2007. The Sri Lankan Military Commander openly stated his intention to eliminate the LTTE, by killing at least ten cadres each day. The Sri Lankan military, the President, Defence Secretary, Cabinet Ministers, political parties which are in alliance with the ruling party and many Buddhist monks are intent on eliminating the LTTE, which is a signatory to the CFA and party to the conflict.

 

The international community was alarmed by the horrendous human rights violations in Sri Lanka. During the very first session of the UN Human Rights Council in June 2006, a resolution was tabled by Finland on behalf of the European Union, against Sri Lanka. This resolution is still on hold for a debate in the Human Rights Council.

 

Many Tamil journalists, academics, parliamentarians, religious leaders, human rights activists and others in the North East were killed during the period when the CFA and the Monitoring Mission were in force.

 

Since Mahinda Rajapaksa became the President, more than 5000 people have been killed and horrendous human rights violations have been reported in North East and other parts.

 

16

 

Sri Lanka withdrew from the Ceasefire Agreement - CFA

 

In January 2008, Sri Lanka arbitrarily withdrew from the Ceasefire Agreement - CFA that was signed between the government of Sri Lanka and the LTTE in February 2002. As a consequence of its withdrawal, the Sri Lankan Monitoring Mission, which consists of members from Nordic countries to supervise the violations of the CFA, has also quit Sri Lanka. Now war continues without any international witnesses. The situation in Sri Lanka is going from bad to worse.

 

On 3 January 2008, Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama officially conveyed in writing to the Norwegian Ambassador Tore Hattrem in Colombo, that the Government of Sri Lanka would withdraw from the CFA.

 

“........... it was the Sri Lankan Government who unilaterally abrogated the ceasefire agreement in January this year?” Barry Gardiner, Minister & MP-UK said in the House of Commons on 17 January 2008. (Excerpt)

 

“.......... it was unfortunate that the Sri Lankan Government abrogated the peace agreement unilaterally, and I had a discussion with the high commissioner this morning in which I made that very point. Mr. Clifton-Brown, MP-UK said in the House of Commons on 17 January 2008. (Excerpt)

 

“The SLMM will close its operation at 1900 hrs today.” (Lars J Solvberg, Major General, Head of Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission, Colombo, 16 January 2008 - excerpt)

 

In 2007, Sri Lanka was ranked as the country, with the third highest number of journalists killed during that year, after Iraq and Somalia. (Press Emblem Campaign monitoring system)

 

International Independent Group of Eminent Persons – IIGEP Quit Sri Lanka

 

On 6th March, the International Independent Group of Eminent Persons – IIGEP considered quitting Sri Lanka after issuing several exhaustive press releases. President Rajapaksa had invited the IIGEP to observe and ensure the transparency of investigations held by the Commission of Inquiries on the complaints of abductions, disappearances and other serious violations of human rights arising since 1st August 2005.  Also, the IIGEP was to ensure that those inquires are conducted in accordance with basic international norms and standards.

 

COLOMBO, April 22 (Reuters) - The IIGEP, which had its concluding press conference on Tuesday, quit citing government unwillingness to implement its recommendations to bring the probe up to international standards, lack of financial stability, government interference and slow process.

"We have exhausted our ability to make a useful contribution," said Professor Sir Nigel Rodley, a member of IIGEP. (Excerpt)

 

Sri Lanka ranked as 3rd most dangerous place for media

 

People’s Daily online, December 19, 2007 - Sri Lanka has been ranked as the third most dangerous place for the media in the world, with seven journalists being killed in 2007, a local newspaper reported Wednesday. http://english.people.com.cn/90001/90777/90851/6323674.html

 

 

Sri Lanka 'plunging into lawlessness'

 

Sri Lanka is 'plunging into lawlessness' as assassinations, abductions, threats to media and paramilitary activities continue, human rights watchdogs said.

 

Sri Lanka is among the most dangerous countries for media personnel in the world, according to an international media watchdog.

 

Paris based Reporters Without Borders (RSF) says 86 journalists were killed worldwide in 2007 in 21 countries.

 

Sri Lanka, where at least three journalists were killed, is the fourth most dangerous country for journalists, according to RSF. (Excerpt)          http://www.bbc.co.uk/sinhala/news/story/2008/01/080102_rsf_press.shtml

 

 

 

 

17

 

Highest number of disappearances in the World

 

Sri Lanka may be a small island, but presently the UN Working group on disappearances has recorded that Sri Lanka ranks as the country with the highest number of disappearances in the world.

 

UN did not re-elect Sri Lanka to Human Rights Council

 

BBSNews 2008-05-22 -- New York (HRW) - UN member states enforced the standards they established for the new Human Rights Council by not re-electing Sri Lanka to the body today. Domestic and international human rights advocates who had opposed Sri Lanka's re-election to the council said the vote was a victory for human rights standards and for victims of abuse in Sri Lanka. (Excerpt)     http://bbsnews.net/article.php/20080522120036196

 

 

Sri Lankan citizens cannot seek remedy

from the UN Human Rights Committee

-- Supreme Court

 

Even though Sri Lanka is signatory to the ICCPR, on 15 September 2006, the Supreme Court effectively ruled that Sri Lankan citizens cannot seek remedy from the UN Human Rights Committee regarding human rights violations. It declared that the accession to the Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) in 1997 does not bind Sri Lanka and has no legal effect within the island - Nallaratnam Singarasa vs The Attorney-General – Decision of the Supreme Court 15 September 2006 – SC Spl (LA) No 182/99.

 

Now, dividing the Sinhalese on religious lines

By Sonali Samarasinghe

 

The Sunday Leader, 24 August 2008 - The attacks on churches and the breach of the fundamental freedom of religion as mobs continue to harass and threaten Christian worship has greatly concerned the diplomatic community.

 

Last week US Ambassador Robert Blake was to take the matter up both with the Minister for Disaster Management and Human Rights Mahinda Samarasinghe and Secretary General of the Peace Secretariat Rajiva Wijesinha.

 

Certainly the government was worried. Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapakse had told a UNP dissident government minister such attacks would cause ripples in the international community. Basil Rajapakse the more moderate of the Rajapakses had given a patient hearing to the victims and promised action.

 

But with the diplomatic community kept abreast of the details of all the attacks the anti Christian sentiment was to cause far more than a few ripples as predicted by Gotabaya. (Excerpt)

http://www.thesundayleader.lk/20080824/spotlight-1.htm

 

 

Sri Lanka is a failed State

 

Year                            Place

 

2008                            20^th

2007                            25th

 

http://www.fundforpeace.org/web/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=99&Itemid=140

 

Minister threatening Embassy and assaulting journalists

 

The Minister of Labour Mervyn Silva walked into the Canadian High Commission with a pistol in his hand to demand a visa for his son (September 2007).

 

Mervyn Silva assaulted a news editor of the state owned Rupawahini cooperation for not broadcasting his speech (December 2007) - and still remains as a cabinet minister with impunity.

 

Even though there have been many calls by UN VIPs, international institutions/organisations and a Supreme court order (May 2006), IDPs remain in their camps, especially the Tamils denied any glimmer of hope of returning to their own residence or villages.

18

 

Under a trade deal with the European Union called GSP-plus, Sri Lanka’s garment exports (its second-largest source of foreign exchange) enjoy duty-free access to the EU. But GSP-plus hinges partly on human rights. Sri Lanka risks losing its privileges.

 

Divide and rule among displaced

 

“At the end of 2006, at least 520,000 people in Sri Lanka were victims of conflict-induced displacement in a country of 20 million, making up one of the largest displacement crises in Asia in absolute terms and particularly in terms of the proportion of the population displaced. Upwards of 300,000 people were displaced in the offensive from 2006 onwards, with Tamil and Muslim minorities in the districts of Batticaloa, Trincomalee and Jaffna the most affected. Despite a major return programme initiated by the government in Batticaloa and Trincomalee in recent months, the number of conflict-induced internally displaced people (IDPs) in the country is estimated still to be around 460,000” (26 September 2007 – Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre – IDMC).

 

In August 2006, a case was filed by some Singhalese against the purchase of 30 acres of land by Muslims in Palavi, Puttalam. This case was rejected by the Court. When the Muslims who were displaced from Jaffna, were moving onto this land, a group of Singhalese, led by a Buddhist monk, immediately chased them away violently, preventing them from settling in Palavi. On the same day they installed a statue of Buddha in that village.

 

Ahmadiyya Muslim Community

 

In a divide and rule tactic practised by the Rajapaksa’s government - tensions and animosity have been created between the members of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community and the other Muslim population, often resulting in sporadic violence and killings in Sri Lanka. This has been intensified in recent years.

Supreme Court 15 September 2006 – SC Spl (LA) No 182/99.

 

Since Mahinda Rajapaksa came to power, full swing Sinhalisation and ethnic cleansing have been rampant in the North East. Statues of Buddha are planted everywhere, the names of Tamil villages are renamed with Singhalese names and the Tamils and Muslims who lived for centuries in the North East are chased away over night, while the Singhalese are settled, according to an overt plan to change the demography of the North East.

Devolution package drafted by the APC

 

The latest “All Party Conference - APC”, - drafted a devolution package and handed it over to the President on 23 January 2008. This is yet another show game, replete with delay tactics, designed for the consumption of the international community. First, Mahinda Rajapaksa himself opposed the very provisions of the 13^th amendment to the constitution in 1987, which he says, he is now going to revive. Second, even though known as an All Party Conference, apart from Sri Lanka Muslim Congress no other opposition party has participated in the discussion or consultation. Third, the Tamil National Alliance – TNA which represents, in the parliament, 21 MPs out of 22 in the whole of North East, was neither invited to participate nor agrees with its present proposal. Fourth, this proposed package has to be passed by a two third majority in parliament, to amend the constitution. In fact, the present government does not have a two third majority in the parliament. Fifth, twenty-one years ago the Tamils rejected the 13^th amendment to the constitution as it fell far short of their political aspirations. Sixth, there cannot be any political solution to the North East, ignoring the LTTE, which is considered by the majority of the Tamils as their saviour. In conclusion, knowing these facts well, Sri Lanka is making yet another proposal to bide time and to fool the international community, while Sri Lanka attempts to win this war militarily.

 

 

Sri Lanka rights activists face growing dangers

 

Reuters and AlertNet, 18 April 2008 - Sri Lanka is now one of the most dangerous places in the world for human rights defenders - broadly defined to include journalists, aid workers, activists, NGO workers and religious leaders. (Excerpt)         http://www.alertnet.org/db/blogs/1564/2008/03/18-114039-1.htm

 

 

Human Rights Defenders harassed and killed

 

Mr Mano Ganeshan, leader of Western People’s Front – WPF, and a member of Parliament for Colombo district, speaks openly against the atrocities of the security forces and the paramilitary groups and has faced death threats. He has temporarily left the country for his safety to India in December 2007. Mr Mano Ganeshan is the president of Democratic Worker’s Congress and Convener of the Civil Monitoring Committee. Last December, he was awarded with "Freedom Defender's Award" by the U.S. Government.

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On 26 August 2008, Mano Ganesan was questioned by the Sri Lankan Terrorist Investigation Department (TID).

 

On 10 November 2006, lawyer, Jaffna district parliamentarian and a member of the Civil Monitoring Committee, Mr. Nadarajah Raviraj was assassinated by so called unknown gunmen in the capital Colombo. Raviraj had spoken openly and strongly against the atrocities committed by the Sri Lankan security forces and the paramilitaries.

 

Mr. Thiyagarajah Maheswaran who escaped an assassination attempt on the final day of the election campaign in March 2004, was shot dead on new year’s day, 1^st January 2008. Maheswaran was killed by so called unknown gunmen when he went to pray in the morning with his family at Ponnambalam Vaneasvarar temple, near St. Anthony’s church at Kochchikkadai in Colombo.

 

On 20 April 2008, the Chairperson of the North East Secretariat on Human Rights (NESOHR), Rev. Father M X Karunaratnam was killed by the Deep Penetration Unit (DPU) of the Sri Lanka Army.

 

Three of NESOHR’s founder members killed

 

Three founder members of the North East Secretariat on Human Rights (NESOHR) have been brutally killed by Sri Lankan government-sponsored killers. Former parliamentarian, Mr Chandra Nehru of Amparai (February 2005), Senior Batticaloa Parliamentarian Mr Joseph Pararajasingam (December 2005) and the Chairperson of NESOHR Rev. Father M X Karunaratnam (April 2008) were all founder members of NESOHR.

 

Who killed Joseph Pararajasingham?

 

During the last Presidential election in Sri Lanka, in 2005, an English news paper, the ‘Daily Mirror’ in Colombo, contacted veteran human rights defender and parliamentarian the late Joseph Pararajasingham, for his comments on Rajapaksa's move against the Tamils during the presidential election. Being the leader of the parliamentary group of the Tamil National Alliance – TNA, Pararajasingham said, ‘’……we can say the Prime Minister is beating war drums by agreeing with the JVP……’’

 

As soon as Joseph Pararajasingham’s comment was published in the Daily Mirror, then Prime Minister Rajapaksa telephoned Pararajasingham’s home in Colombo and argued with him demanding that he withdraw the published statement. As a man of principle, Pararajasingham refused Rajapaksa's demand and the disappointed Rajapaksa concluded his phone call saying that, ‘’……once the presidential election is over, you will see my true colours’’.

 

On 19 November 2005, Mahinda Rajapaksa became the President of Sri Lanka. On 24 December 2005, Mr Pararajasingham was assassinated inside St Mary’s Cathedral by so called unknown gunman while he and his wife were participating in the midnight Christmas Eve mass in their home town Batticaloa. Even though there were hundreds of eye witnesses to this assassination and the killers names were personally given by TNA parliamentarians to President Rajapaksa, until today nothing has happened to bring the culprits to justice!

 

 

Paramilitary leader smuggled into UK

 

The Sri Lankan government smuggled a Paramilitary leader Karuna (Vinayagamoorthi Muralitharan) to London, UK, on a forged Diplomatic passport, on 18 September 2007. The Sri Lankan government harbours and supports the activities of Paramilitary groups.

 

It is believed that Karuna managed to smuggle a huge amount of money (believed to be 53 crores Sri lankan rupees – one core equal to 10 million) into UK. This money was collected through kidnapping, abducting and killing of innocent people and co-ordinated very well by the government of Sri Lanka. Is this neither Terrorism for Sri Lanka nor for the international community?

 

The assassination of prominent persons like Parliamentarians Joseph Pararajasingham, Ariyanayagam Chandra Nehru, V. Vigneswaran, Academic Vice-chancellor Ravindranathan and Journalists Sivaram and Nadesan are among the killings carried out by Karuna in Sri Lanka.

 

 20

 

 

 

 

 

Those who spoke about the realities in Sri Lanka -

Branded as “Terrorist Supporters”

 

Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission – SLMM, Chief(s)

 

SLMM Chief Hagrup Haukland

-do-                   Ulf Henricson

-do-                   Larsj Solverg

 

World Bank Country Director Peter Harrold

 

UN Emergency Relief Coordinator and Under Secretary General of Humanitarian Affairs Sir John Holmes,

 

UN Special Adviser Allan Rock

 

Australian Prof John Whitehall

 

Many International Human rights and Humanitarian organisations

 

Many Parliamentarians from the UK, Members of the European Parliament, US Congressmen, Academics, Journalists and others from various countries.

 

The war president

 

Sri Lanka’s army chief says the government has won

its 25-year war against the Tamil Tigers. This is not true

 

Economist, July 3rd 2008 - MAHINDA RAJAPAKSE, Sri Lanka’s president, shakes out his white outfit and spreads his bare toes with a satisfied air. “We have concentrated on the LTTE [the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam],” he says, “because unless we defeat them, we will have no peace and development.” In January he abrogated a ceasefire and stepped up a brutal two-year offensive against the no-less-brutal LTTE. This week his army commander, General Sarath Fonseka, claimed the operation had succeeded. The Tigers, said the general, had lost the capability of fighting as a conventional army. “We have defeated them.”

 

The Tigers have not surrendered and would presumably disagree. But the president’s brother, Gotabhaya Rajapakse, who is also defence secretary, says the government has a once-in-a-generation chance to crush them. General Fonseka claims the Tigers have lost 9,000 fighters since 2006. They were driven from one big Tamil town, Jaffna, in 1995. Now they no longer pose a threat to another, Trincomalee.

 

The press has been a bellwether. Basil Rajapakse, another of the president’s brothers, who is his chief adviser on domestic politics, says—unreassuringly— that the government does not want a law on censorship “but a voluntary self-control”. Accusations of harassment are frequent. This week a journalist from the Sri Lankan Press Institute, which had just launched defamation proceedings against a government-controlled newspaper, was attacked by club-wielding thugs, while travelling with a British diplomat, who was also clubbed. Late last year the International Press Institute put Sri Lanka on its watch-list of countries where the media’s situation is precarious, along with Russia.

 

More subtly, politics seem to have become less open and accountable. The reins of power have been drawn into the hands of the three Rajapakse brothers. In a region where democratic dynasties are common, the Rajapakse clan is unusual. It does not hail from the traditional English-speaking elite that produced Sri Lanka’s other presidents. Mahinda, from Hambantota, represents the rural south, the Buddhist provincial bourgeoisie, rather than the urban elite. To offset weak traditional loyalties, he has curried favour by lavish ministerial appointments. Sri Lanka has a huge, 108-strong cabinet. One minister resigned, saying his ministry should be abolished since it had nothing to do.

 

This has worrying consequences. Democratic Sri Lanka, which suffered more than most from the 2004 tsunami, has the sort of relations with international agencies you would associate with Sudan. In May it lost its seat on the United Nations Human Rights Council (not a body demanding the highest standards: Russia, Cuba and Saudi Arabia are members). America’s State Department has cited credible reports of government involvement in extra-judicial killings, and complicity in the recruitment of child soldiers by its allies. Sri Lanka’s mission in Geneva responds to criticism by calling the former head of the UNHRC, Louise Arbour, unqualified to monitor human rights in the country. This dispute is self-defeating. Under a trade deal with the European Union called GSP-plus, Sri Lanka’s garment exports (its second-largest source of foreign exchange) enjoy duty-free access to the EU. But GSP-plus hinges partly on human rights. Sri Lanka risks losing its privileges.

21

 

The president was elected on a platform of getting tough with the Tigers. But that was thanks partly to the boycott imposed by the Tigers themselves. Hardline governments, they reckon, end up helping their cause by driving even moderate Tamils into their clutches. Mr Rajapakse has driven the Tigers from the east, held an election there and claims to be closing in on victory. Yet the costs have been enormous and if the Tigers refuse to negotiate, there seems to be no alternative strategy to one entailing more bloodshed. Asked about this, Mr Rajapakse says the Tigers will be forced to talk—and, in a gesture he uses when nettled, shoves his bare feet firmly back into his sandals. (Excerpt)                   http://www.economist.com/displaystory.cfm?story_id=11671129

 

 

Truth is the first casualty of war

Sri Lankan propagandists attempt to influence world opinion

Summary

                                               

Government of Sri Lanka                    Tamils

 

Propaganda / Campaign          Misinformation / exaggeration               Public information campaign with facts

                                                Professional advertising in

                                                Foreign media

                                               

 

Methods used                          TV, Radio, News papers                       Websites, emails & News papers

                                                High quality glossy printed documents.

                                                SL embassies use influence with

                                                Foreign media and journalists

 

Propagandists            /                      Sri Lankan Ministers, Diplomats,                       Victims of Human Rights violations &

Campaigners                            Tamil quisling groups                            kith and kin of victims

                                                Hired Western personnel

 

Propaganda / Campaign-         Sri Lanka Ministry of Foreign Affairs      Diaspora organisations

Organisation/institutions       Embassies      

                                                Ministry of Human Rights

                                                Ministry of Defence

Attorney General’s Department

                                                SCOPP – Peace Secretariat

                                                Hired Western organisations

                                               

Funding                                   State - Million dollar projects             Diaspora

                                                (See page 45)

 

Target group                          Governments, VVIPs, Media                -------------

                                                International NGOs,Religious institutions

                                   

Platforms                               UN General Assembly &                       -------------

                                                other UN institutions

                                                European Union & Parliament

                                                The Commonwealth, The SAARC,etc

 

Entertainment                                    Five start hotels                                                Reports full of facts with

                                                Invitation to Sri Lanka                          evidence

                                                Romantic entertainment

                                               

Counter propaganda              Behave like local Law enforcement      True facts and figures

                                                Agencies,

                                                Victimisation of Tamil diaspora

 

Outcome of propaganda         Tamil activists in the diaspora are         ------------

                                                intimidated in the Sri Lankan racist

Media and pro-government websites.

                                                Harassed and menaced.

 

Supporting Countries             Claimed by Sri Lanka as                       ------------

                                                France, UK, USA, China, Pakistan,     

                                                Iran, Cuba,                                          

22

Sinhala Tamil relationship

Sinhala Buddhists dominate Sri Lanka

 

The President                                                 is a Sinhalese and Buddhist

The Prime Minister                             is a Sinhalese and Buddhist

The Opposition Leader                       is a Sinhalese and Buddhist

 

The Commander of the Sri Lanka Army         is a Sinhalese and Buddhist

-do-                              Navy            is a Sinhalese and Buddhist

-do-                              Air Force     is a Sinhalese and Buddhist

The Inspector General of        Police          is a Sinhalese and Buddhist

The Attorney General                                                 is a Sinhalese and Buddhist

 

Armed forces are                                99% Sinhalese

Public service is                                95% Sinhalese

Diplomatic Service is                                     95% Sinhalese

Admission to Law College                  99% Sinhalese

Universities – Staff & students           85% Sinhalese

 

Political prisoners in Sri Lanka's prisons                             99% Tamils

Arrested, killed, disappeared, raped and displaced             99% Tamils

 

 

 

 

“Really if I starve the Tamils out, the Sinhala people will be happy”

President J.R. Jeyawardena (Feb 1978 – Jan 1989)

 

 

“I am not worried about the opinion of the Tamil people. Now we cannot think of them, not about their lives or their opinion. The more you put pressure in the north, the happier the Sinhala people will be here. Really if I starve the Tamils out, the Sinhala people will be happy.” – President J.R. Jeyawardena, Daily Telegraph, UK 11th July 1983

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2008/jun/03/commentary-plucked-peace-flower/

 

 

 

``Minorities are like creepers ........''

President D. B. Wijetunga (May 1993 – Nov 1994)

 

 

D B Wijetunga President of the UNP that the ``minorities are like creepers clinging to the Sinhala tree.'' (Excerpt) http://www.indianexpress.com/res/web/pIe/ie/daily/19981117/32150274.html

 

 

 

“Minority community is not the original people of the Country”

– President Kumaratunga (Nov 1994 – Nov 2005)

 

 

President Chandrika Kumaratunga told South African television recently that Tamils were not the "original" people of Sri Lanka. ``They are wanting a separate state, a minority community which is not the original people of the country,'' she said in the interview. (Excerpt)

http://www.indianexpress.com/res/web/pIe/ie/daily/19981117/32150274.html

 

 

 

 

 

23

 

“Man who fathered the Eelam Concept”

S. Sivanayagam in Tamil Information, 15 March 1985

 

The man who fathered the Tamil Eelam concept and introduced the word EELAM into the Ceylonese political vocabulary — Professor C. Suntharalingam — died in his ninetieth year at Vavuniya on the 11th February 1985. But it is perhaps a tragic commentary on Tamilian life that the majority of the youths who are today engaged in a liberation struggle for the establishment of a Tamil Eelam have not even heard of him!

 

It was C. Suntharalingam who founded the Eela Thamil Ottrumai Munnani (Unity Front of Eelam Tamils) in 1959. It is again a tragic commentary of Tamilian life that 26 years after, when Tamils in Sri Lanka are facing both individually and totally annihilation and extinction at the hands of their own government while the rest of the world maintains the hypocritical pose that it is an internal problem. The victims themselves are unable to unite in one common defence of their lives!

 

In a printed leaflet, dated from Vavuniya, as far back as 16th December 1959, Mr. Suntharalingam called for a "Eela Thamil struggle for Independence" (interestingly, the leaflet carries the name of an Indian printer — The Trichinopoly United Printers, Tiruchi 2)

 

There were no "Tigers" then. No guns.. no militancy, and in fact many of "our, boys" of today were probably not born or were in their cradles. Even the "Thamil Eelam Resolution" of the TULF came 17 years later !

(Excerpt)           http://www.tamilnation.org/hundredtamils/suntharalingam.htm

(Ps. Mr S Sivanayagam was the Editor of ‘Saturday Review’ in Jaffna, ‘Tamil Nation’ in India and UK and ‘Hot Spring’ published in UK)

 

The Sri Lankan Situation

An analysis by Oor Kuruvi

 

A. Sovereignty and Territorial Integrity

Almost all the countries of the world have said that there should/could be no military solution to the national question in Sri Lanka, and that there should be only a political one, although the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the country must be preserved. They also state that the solution should be acceptable to all communities. After nearly six decades of anti-Tamil propaganda, the 74% Sinhalese majority which has been brainwashed and enjoy the benefits of majority hegemony, are not going to accept any solution that is just and treats Tamils with equality and dignity. They are used to treating Tamils as second class citizens. There can be no solution acceptable to all communities.

 

What sovereignty and territorial integrity is being discussed? Before the colonial powers arrived in the island, then called Ceylon, there were three kingdoms in the island. This is mentioned in the Cleghorn (a British Colonial Secretary) minutes of 1799, and the map of the island drawn by Knox which shows the existence of a Tamil and two Sinhalese kingdoms. Sinhalese historian Paul Peiris has said that before the arrival of the Sinhalese in the island, Tamils had lived there, as evidenced by the existence of five Hindu temples for worship of Lord Shiva. This is supported by evidence of inscriptions on stones. It is also accepted that Buddha visited the island to settle a dispute between two Naga kings in the North. It is surprising that even India, who should know better, speaks of maintaining the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Sri Lanka! Were the sovereignty and territorial integrity of British India preserved? India has been divided into several linguistic states. Did not India fight for the birth of Bangladesh and broke up Pakistan into two?

 

Portuguese, a colonial power first captured the maritime Sinhalese Kingdom. It was 105 years later, that they captured the Tamil Kingdom which had its own Sovereignty and Territorial Integrity. We have the names of all the Kings of the Tamil Kingdom starting from Kanagasooriyan in 1461, continuously to Sangili Kmaran who was dethroned by the Portuguese in 1619.The Dutch took over from the Portuguese and the British from the Dutch.

 

The hill country Sinhalese Kingdom was captured by the British only in 1815. The kingdoms were administered separately by all the colonial powers till 1833, when the British joined them for administrative convenience.

 

N. What Negotiations and with Whom?

Despite statements regarding the need for peace talks made by many governments and international organizations, as well as prominent persons from all over the World,  the Sinhala majority government is hell-bent on fighting and eliminating the liberation fighters who they call terrorists. The President has used paramilitary forces (TMVP) who broke away  from the original liberation fighters (and still  carry arms), to drive the former away from the East. 

 

Subsequently, the government formed an alliance with the TMVP and held elections in the demerged Eastern Province. The President made the second in command of the TMVP the Chief Minister of that Council. Karuna, the leader of the TMVP, was provided with a diplomatic passport with a Sinhalese name, according to Karuna himself in testimony, by the Defence Secretary. He spent some time in the British jail for entering the country on a false passport and was deported back to Sri Lanka, allegedly using the name Antony in his passport. It is anybody’s guess as to who provided the new false passport. Karuna has been welcomed and has been promised some facilities. He has been promised the leadership of his party and there is speculation that the government will use him to lead a force to fight the liberation fighters, as he did in the East.

 

24

 

 

 

The liberation fighters have conveyed their agreement for peace talks, with Norway continuing as the facilitator. and Norway has agreed.

 

The government, the president and all ministers have been spreading all kinds of false propaganda to deceive the world that it is working on a political arrangement alongside their military campaign. It is said that in war, the first casualty is truth. But there should be a limit to that, too.

 

The President formed an All Party Representative Committee (APRC) to come up with a solution to what the government calls the “Ethnic Problem.” However, the Tamil National Alliance, the party representing the majority of electorates of the merged Northeast Province, who are the main representatives of Tamils in Parliament, were not invited! As could be expected, after meetings lasting more than an year, and trips to foreign countries to “study” how power could be devolved, the President of the APRC came up with no solution. It is hard to come up with any solution with such a motley, unrepresentative group. Even if a solution is arrived at, it has to be approved at a national referendum by a population which has a 74 % Sinhalese majority.

 

Eventually, after much arm-twisting, the APRC said that the 13th Amendment, which is already in place, but not implemented in full, was the solution for the time being. The APRC is supposed to come up with a 'final' solution soon. However, even the President’s proposal put forward by the APRC chairman  has not been implemented. The para-military group, the new-found friend of the government, which still carries arms, has been admitted to the APRC! Already the Chief Minister of the Eastern Province has asked for more devolution

 

It is hard to believe that the President does not have the “tiger by the tail.”

 

How can one trust such a government?

On the war front, the President has been exponentially spending more and more money every year on arms purchases and payments to the armed forces. Deadlines given to finish the war have been moved constantly from April 2008 to December 2009 now. The army commander has recently said that, even after 20 years, the war will continue to exist with new recruits due to rising Tamil national feeling--what a revelation!

 

The President has already said that the government will not talk with the liberation fighters unless they lay down their arms before agreeing to talk. Surely he is mature enough to know, that it will never happen. He has also said that, at the next peace talks, he will talk with all Tamil groups and not only the LTTE.

 

Tamil aspirations have been spelt out. Added to that should be “treatment of all communities with Equality, Justice and Dignity.

 

The government’s view is that it wants a united state with some devolution to provinces and continued hegemony over Tamils. It is true that at one time the liberation fighters had agreed to explore Federalism with internal self –determination. Now even that that is too little, too late. Some argue that Tamils should accept an Indian type of federalism. The Indian type is not federalism, but quasi-federalism. India’s Constitution provides for a Governor nominated by the Central Government and has a section 356 under which the centre could dismiss a state government.

 

If the problem cannot be solved on any basis acceptable to the Tamil people, the fighting will continue. The fighting and loss of life and property should stop and we should revert to the Status Quo Ante, before colonialists came to the island.

 

Tamils and the Sinhalese should revert to their own sovereignties and territorial integrities as before the colonial powers came in. The hundreds of thousands of killings, displacements and destruction would then stop and money spent on arms and the war front by both sides could be used for development purposes. All the people, Sinhalese and Tamils can live without fear and trepidation in their own homelands.

 

The alternative is not a happy proposition.

 

This is nothing new in this and has been done in Kosovo, East Timor, Eritrea/Ethiopia, Czechoslovakia, and Singapore/Malaysia, etc.

 

A free and fair referendum supervised by the United Nations or by countries nominated by it could, if needed, be held from all Tamils born in the island and their natural descendants (as has been done in the case of East Timor) to find out their wishes. Such a solution should be guaranteed by the UN or major countries.           (Excerpts)

http://www.sangam.org/2008/07/Situation.php?uid=3020

 

 

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The Question the Sinhala Nation asks at Dawn

“What is the Relationship of Rama and Sita?”

By D. Sivaram

(D. Sivaram was killed by the usual unknown killer on 28 April 2005 in Colombo.

until today nothing has happened to bring the culprits to justice!.)

In response to my article last week Chandranathan has written his view.

 

"The Sinhalese people are kept in an illusion by their leaders and opinion makers. Therefore, we should make a continuous effort to convince at least a few of the Sinhalese to understand our views/problems." He sent this e-mail via the Tamilnatham website which re-posted my article from Virakesari.

 

I am not opposing his views. There should be no second thought about taking our reasonable views to the Sinhalese people on a regular basis. However, my genuine concern is that we should not fall into the illusion that such acts from us will result in receiving our rights from the Sri Lankan rulers. We have been experiencing massive destruction in the last 50 years because of the acts of the Sinhala supremacists. Yet how much effort we have put into scientifically analysing and comprehending such destruction? Except for a few research papers in the Sari Nihar journal, I have not seen any other effort made in our Tamil intellectual circles to analyse and comprehend Sinhala Buddhist supremacy, its history, its views and its related social and psychological dimensions. (If you know any such work, please let me know.)

 

Recently I went to a conference that was attended by a number of professors, writers, journalists and opinion makers from the South. At that conference the organisers asked me to explain the political aspirations of the Tamil people. The Tamil people and their leaders, who have been fluent in English and in Sinhalese, along with reporters, and intellectuals, all have been talking and writing what our political grievances and demands are for the last 56 years.

 

Not only that, the Tamils have been talking with, or putting forward their demands and fighting against, the various governments by peaceful means for 28 years ( 1948 – 1976) and using armed struggle for 28 years ( 1976 – 2004). It is a known fact that bombs went off among the Sinhalese because none of the Tamils' political demands were met. Even an intellectually retarded person will definitely ask questions why bombs are going off around him and why an international airport is attacked and badly damaged.

 

But, even after all this, the Sinhalese are still asking what are the political aspirations of the Tamils and what are your demands? Such a situation still prevails in the Sinhala nation. "For over half a century, the Tamil people have been explaining their political aspirations and demands in and out of Parliament and in the international arena, until their jaws cannot move. Even after all this, you are still asking me what are the Tamils' aspirations and demands? It is a sin. I cannot speak about this," I told them.

 

The sweetest matter at the conference was that the majority of the people who attended really did not know what the political demands of the Tamils are. After all the events in the last 56 years, if they cannot comprehend what our demands are, I do not know how they are going to understand now.

 

With regard to our political demands, the question the Sinhala nation asks is similar to someone asking in the morning, "What is Rama’s relationship with Seetha?" after listening to the whole Ramayana epic through the night.

 

Those who advocate that we must make the Sinhalese people understand our political demands must analyse one issue. One has to think a little and ask, "Why is the Sinhala Nation not understanding us, even after 56 years of many talks and fights?" "How can we now convert those who have refused to understand us, and who have not cared to understand us for over a half a century?"

 

In this regard, we have to look at one more important point. From the beginning of the 20th Century, the Sinhalese politicians and the opinion makers who, at one time, understood the Tamil grievances and their reasonable political demands, have changed for the worse over time and have taken complete U-turns on the Tamil issue.

 

Every one of you knows that, after returning from his education in England, President Chandrika’s father, SWRD Bandaranayake, advocated that Sri Lanka must be converted to a federal system with three federal regions : Kandyan region, Lower Country or Coastal region, Tamil homeland (region).

 

What did he do after that ?

26

 

Likewise, the Communist Party of Sri Lanka in its 1944 National Conference passed a resolution emphasizing that the Tamils should be granted self-rule. The same Communist Party, together with the SLFP, declared in 1972 that Sri Lanka is a Sinhala Buddhist nation.

 

What did one of the veteran leftist leaders and a pillar of the LSSP, Colvin R de Silva, who prophesied " One language, two nations and two languages, one nation" on the implementation of Sinhala Only act in 1956, actually do? He was the prime mover in rewriting the Sri Lankan constitution to make Sri Lanka a unitary Sinhala Buddhist state in 1972.

 

The above are old stories that you all know. Let us take the period in which our struggle for our rights became an armed struggle. From the late 1970s on, the JVP emphasised that the Tamil rights for self-determination must be approved.

 

On this basis, many Tamil youths from Batticaloa and Jaffna joined the JVP and served the JVP. What happened after that?

 

In 1986, Rohana Wijeyaweera, the leader of the JVP, in his long speech to the central committee of JVP, established that the Tamil liberation struggle is an imperialistic conspiracy and categorically said that it must be crushed. His speech was compiled as a book later. To date that book is the political bible of the JVP.

 

Around 1973, some of the educated left wing non-JVP Sinhalese youths formed an organisation called the "Stalinist Education Circle." This organisation was gave importance to the Tamil liberation organisations, writing and speaking about them. This organisation also established some connections with some of the armed Tamil liberation organisations. (Pe. Muthulingam who writes for the weekend edition of Virakesari was connected to this organisation at that time.)

 

One of the main speakers in the Stalinist Study Circle ( STC), who spoke about the Tamil rights and their right for self determination and who justified the Tamils armed struggle, was Dayan Jayatilleke. Not only that, he and his comrades formed an armed organisation called "Vikalpa Kandayama."

 

With the leftist ideologies as their base, the STC joined with some of the Eelam liberation organisations, and worked for the self-determination for the Tamils. I used to meet them in Kandy and Colombo and had discussions with them. (Nobody can underestimate the impact of the analysis and sharp explanations put forward by Dayan Jayatillake on the liberation wars in the third world and on oppression by imperialists worldwide.)

 

Vikalpa Kandayama was banned in 1986 on the accusation that it conspired to topple the Sri Lankan government. Dayan Jayatilake went into hiding. The Sri Lankan police and the armed forces were combing the country looking for him. When he was about to be captured, he contacted me.

 

Even many of the good friends of Dayan Jayatilake refused to help me when he had flee from his hiding place in Colombo. In the end, we managed to take him from his hiding place to another safe place outside Colombo. We did this after taking him to see the late Vijaya Kumaratunge, actor and husband of Chandrika Kumaratunge, at midnight. Vijay Kumaratunge helped me. (In this regard, without even asking his wife Chandrika or anybody else, he helped me immediately. He was a unique person.)

 

Dayan Jayatilleke later escaped to India. Then, after getting pardoned by the SL government, he came back to Sri Lanka and became a minister in a Regional Council.

 

What is Jayatillake, a person who moved intimately with the Tamil liberation organisations, doing today? Today, he writes without cease how the Tiger liberation struggle should be crushed.

 

Once an extreme opponent of American imperialism Jayatillake writes week after week emphasizing that Sri Lanka should seek collaboration with the US to crush the military power of the Tamils.

 

In those days Jayatillake used to write and say that we must go beyond Sinhala-Tamil differences and fight against American imperialism and fight for the class struggle.

 

Such a nice friend of mine, Dayan Jayatilleke, now writes in the Island newspaper that "We (i.e. the Sinhalese and Sinhala nation) must seek the support of the US to crush the military power of the Tamils." What happened to him?

 

Is that all?

 

During the period of 1984/86, on behalf of People's Liberation Organization of Tamil Eelam, I was involved in revolutionary work, a broad one in a united Sri Lanka, by forging alliances with Sinhalese Groups in the South.

27

 

At that time, the most important connection for me in Colombo was Dr. Nalin de Silva of the Mathematics Department at Colombo University. I used to go to his office to see two of his young students. They were directly helping me on our political struggle. Dr. Silva always treated me nicely. Not a single day was he scared or frightened to socialize with me. He was never shocked by me carrying a pistol.

 

What is he doing today?

 

He is the head of the think tank "Jathika Chinthanaya," which is based on the fundamentalism of Sinhala Buddhist supremacy.

 

What happened to him? Whenever he sees me, he is nice to me. But he continues to emphasize that Sri Lanka is a Sinhala Buddhist land.

 

There is no point having connections only with the leftist groups in the South, if we want to take forward our struggle by justifying it to the Sinhalese people. We have to talk to the SLFP which is well rooted and spread among the Sinhalese. I put this view to PLOTE and it was accepted. I contacted Mangala Munasinghe, an important opinion maker and thinker in the SLFP. I also knew him from before.

 

Munasinghe told me that he would introduce me to a person who was part of the future top circle of the SLFP party. It was Thilak Karunaratne. Munasinghe introduced me to Karunaratne. The relationship between Karunaratne and our organisation became very close within a short period.

 

Our cadres started to stay in his residence in Colombo and in his constituency in Banadragama. They did a lot of work for him. (Some of our bullets were found in his car and the case against him was dragged for a long time). In the history of Sinhala-Tamil political relationship, the help he did at a crucial time was important. The help was the effort he made to get assistance from a foreign country to completely topple the Sri Lankan government through an armed struggle.

 

Karunaratne and his family always moved with my comrades and me in a friendly and kind manner, which cannot be forgotten forever. What happened to such a person like Tilak Karunaratne? Why has he started the Sinhala Buddhist extremist party "Sinhala Urumaya?"

 

Is that all ?

 

'Only by granting the rights of self-determination for Tamils can we solve the racial problem.' This is the view Chandrika categorically said on the issue. By allowing my friends and me to stay in their house in Colombo, Chandrika and her husband helped us to do our work in Southern Sri Lanka. During that time Chandrika used to tell me, "Do not speak to anyone who does not accept the rights of the Tamils for self-determination." ( Her husband, Vijaya Kumaratunge, was kind and supportive of our people and our liberation struggle, but he was assassinated by the JVP).

 

What happened to this kind of Chandrika, the President? Why did she unleash the horror of the "War for Peace" on Tamils?

 

If we have to find explanations for all these, then we have to do an in-depth analysis of the psyche of the Sinhala Nation. Based on that alone can we firm up our approach on how to deal with the Sinhala nation.          (Courtesy: Virakesari – 10 October 2004)

 

 

Do you think the LTTE is interested in peace at all?

Jehan Perera, Media Director, National Peace Council, Colombo

 

Yes, the LTTE is interested in a peace where people under its control and the larger population in the North-East benefit economically from the ceasefire. This it certainly wants. The question is how much it is willing to compromise politically in terms of the power it wields. That has to be negotiated, and it is possible to do that. That the LTTE agreed in 2001 to the Norwegian facilitators when they specifically said they would facilitate within the framework of a united Sri Lanka, is convincing evidence that the LTTE is prepared to compromise. (Excerpt – Hindu Business Line, 8 August 2006)        http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2006/08/08/stories/2006080800471100.htm

 

28

 

Internationally

 

Opinion poll in Tamil Nadu in India calls for

independent Tamil Eelam in Sri Lanka

 

Tamil Nadu, 02 August 2008 - In a significant opinion poll conducted by Ananda Vikatan, a weekly magazine of Tamil Nadu in South India, majority of voters decided that an independent Tamil Eelam is the solution to the crisis in Sri Lanka and solicited support to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).

The details of the opinion poll appeared in Ananda Vikatan follow:

 

On their stand on LTTE...
	Votes	Percentage
Always support	2,276	54.25
Always against	730	17.40
Supported before the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi	1,189	28.34
On forming an independent Thamil Eelam...
	Votes	Percentage
Correct solution	2,326	55.44
Not necessary	416	9.91
Self rule for Tamils should be sufficient	1,453	34.63
On the Indian government ban on LTTE...
	Votes	Percentage
Correct stand	1,151	27.43
The ban should be removed	1,999	47.65
Should wait and see	1,045	24.91
On the Tamil Nadu leaders’ (Vaiko, Ramadoss, Thirumalavan, Nedumaran) support for LTTE...
	Votes	Percentage
Correct stand	2,071	49.36
Dangerous policy	571	13.61
It's for other agenda	1,553	37.02
On LTTE leader Pirapaharan who is accused of involvement in the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi...
	Votes	Percentage
Should be arrested	1,805	43.02
Is innocent	709	16.90
Should be forgiven	1,681	40.07
On what should be done by India in the Sri Lankan crisis...
	Votes	Percentage
India should not get involved	528	12.58
India should involve to find a solution	2,626	62.59
India should only get involved if the conflict gets out of control	1,041	24.81
29
On LTTE assassinating Tamil politicians of dissenting views...
	Votes	Percentage
Cannot be accepted at all	1,810	43.14
Inevitable approach	1,089	25.95
Do not understand the circumstances there	1,296	30.89
On LTTE growing to possess a standing army, navy and air force...
	Votes	Percentage
A matter to be proud of	1,940	46.24
A danger to India	780	18.59
Neither of the above	1,475	35.16
On ruling DMK’s (Dravida Munnetra Kalakam) stand on LTTE...
	Votes	Percentage
DMK should take a harder stand against LTTE	953	22.71
DMK should support LTTE without worrying about being in power	1,992	47.48
DMK may continue its current policy of apathy.	1,250	29.79
On Nalini’s (convicted in Rajiv Gandhi assassination) continued imprisonment even after completion of sentence...
	Votes	Percentage
Nalini should be released	1,747	41.64
She may be released and kept under supervision	1,579	37.64
Her imprisonment should continue	869	20.71
On the islet of Kachchatheevu...
	Votes	Percentage
India should retrieve Kachchatheevu from Sri Lanka	2,759	65.76
India may give up Kachchatheevu	263	6.26
India should at least have assert to the rights of Indians getting access to Kachchatheevu.	1173	27.96
On the issue of Indian fishermen, getting killed by the Sri Lankan navy...
	Votes	Percentage
India should respond with military force	1,244	29.65
India should resolve the issue through negotiations	1,464	34.89
India should severely reprimand Sri Lanka in the international arena	1,487	35.44

 

Majority in Tamil Nadu supports LTTE

 

The Statesman, Chennai, 11 August 2008 - Majority of the people in Tamil Nadu are supporting the LTTE, despite accepting that the organisation was behind the assassination of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, according to a survey conducted by a leading Tamil weekly here.

The shocking results of the survey published in this week's Ananda Vikadan, which tops the circulation among weeklies in Tamil Nadu said that 54.25 per cent of the respondents said that they have always supported the Tigers and their goal of a separate Tamil homeland in Sri Lanka.

Although it is known that support for the Tigers is rising in Tamil Nadu, as seen from the large attendance of people, especially youths in meetings addressed by pro-Tiger leaders like Mr Vaiko, the amount of support for the banned outfit, revealed in a survey conducted by a media group, which is considered respected for its neutrality is quiet stunning. The fact that the magazine chose to publish the results showing support for a banned organisation is itself surprising.

To a question on continuing the ban on the LTTE, 47.65 per cent respondents wanted the ban to be lifted, while 27.43 were for continuing it. The rest of the respondents said that the Centre should wait for some time before thinking of lifting the ban. (Excerpt)           http://www.thestatesman.net/page.news.php?clid=2&theme=&usrsess=1&id=217966

30

 

Indian Fishermen Harassed and arrested by Sri Lanka Navy

 

Eight Indian fishermen missing

 

Indo-Asian News Service on Sunday, August 24, 2008 - At least eight Indian fishermen with five boats were reported missing Sunday after alleged attacks by the Sri Lankan Navy, the Tamil Nadu police said.

 

K. Vishwanathan, a 48-year-old fisherman, said a flotilla of over 450 Indian fishing vessels was attacked by the island’s defence personnel who confiscated their catch, disrobed the fishermen and assaulted them.

 

Indian Coast Guard and naval personnel mounted a search to locate survivors, police officials said.

The Sri Lankan mission in state capital Chennai,

http://www.freshnews.in/eight-indian-fishermen-missing-58213

 

 

Restrain your fishermen, Rajapaksa tells Manmohan

 

By M.R. Narayan Swamy Colombo, Aug 1 (IANS) - Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa Friday urged Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to ensure that Indian fishermen did not breach the maritime boundary between the two countries. Responding to Indian concerns that Indian fishermen were facing attacks from the Sri Lankan Navy, Rajapaksa told Manmohan Singh that it was his country’s policy to treat all arrested fishermen humanely.

 

At the same time, he said the Indian authorities should discourage Indian fishermen from crossing the international line of demarcation, saying their presence was used by the Tamil Tigers for its activities against the Sri Lankan state. Rajapaksa’s comments, according to a presidential communiqué.

 

http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/business/restrain-your-fishermen-rajapaksa-tells-manmohan_10078888.html

 

Sri Lanka frees 300 Indian trawlers

 

Colombo, July 3 (IANS) Sri Lanka has released all the 300-odd Indian fishing trawlers the navy seized while allegedly poaching in the island’s territorial waters, after hours of through investigation. Navy spokesman Commander D.K.P. Dassanayake said that the 300 trawlers were sailing towards Tamil Tigers-held Vidattaltivu area in north-western Mannar district when they were spotted and surrounded by the naval craft on routine patrol Wednesday afternoon.

 

“The Indian trawlers were surrounded by naval craft between Delft and Thalaimannar islands and taken into custody. After investigation we released 299 trawlers by 10 in the night while the remaining one trawler was also released Thursday morning,” Commander Dassanayake told IANS.

 

“We found no suspicious items in their possession,” he said, pointing out that the issue of Indian fishermen poaching in Sri Lanka’s territorial waters was posing a huge threat to the country’s security. (Excerpt)

http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/south-asia/sri-lanka-frees-300-indian-trawlers_10067387.html

 

Sri Lanka navy arrests 19 Indian fishermen

 

By P. KarunakharanColombo, May 16 (IANS) - The Sri Lankan Navy has arrested 19 Indian fishermen on charges of poaching in Sri Lanka’s territorial waters. The authorities here suspect the fishermen have also “smuggled in something” for the Tamil Tigers, a military spokesperson said. “We have arrested 19 Indian fishermen with three dhows off Thalaimannar on Thursday. This time the issue is very serious because they were arrested while returning from the LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam) held territories such as Devil Point and Palaitivu,” said navy spokesperson Commander D.K.P. Dassanayake.

 

Pointing out that India had banned fishing “during this breeding season”, he said the fishermen had “violated rules and regulations of their own land”. “We strongly suspect that they might have smuggled in something for the LTTE,” Dassanayake told IANS.

 

The arrested Indian fishermen were produced before the Mannar magistrate, who has ordered them to be kept in custody till May 22. According to an Indian diplomat, the Sri Lankan Navy had informed the high commission about the arrest Thursday. (Excerpt)

31

 

India, Sri Lanka arrest 46 fishermen

 

Rameswaram (Tamil Nadu), Feb 29 (IANS) The Indian Coast Guard Friday arrested 21 Sri Lankan fishermen, off the coast of Karaikal in Puducherry. The police have taken the fishermen, who had crossed the international maritime boundary line (IMBL), to Chennai, an official said.

 

The Sri Lankan Navy has taken into custody 25 Indian fishermen from Kanyakumari district Friday. They have been taken to a prison in Thalaimannar.

 

Two boats from each side were also seized.

 

The Indian and Lankan authorities have officially informed each other of the arrest of fishermen, sources said.

http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/uncategorized/india-sri-lanka-arrest-46-fishermen_10022502.html

 

Katchathivu

Ex-Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu Jayalalithaa

threatens to move Supreme Court

 

CHENNAI: Thursday July 31 2008 - AIADMK leader Jayalalithaa on Thursday threatened to move the Supreme Court to challenge the validity of secession of Katchathivu island in the Palk Straits to Sri Lanka under the 1974 Indo-Sri Lanka pact, if the UPA government failed to do so.

Quoting an Apex Court judgement in the Berubary union case on exchange of enclaves in Kutch with Pakistan, Jayalalithaa in a statement here said the court had stated that ceding of Indian territory to another country resulted in 'diminution of the territory of the union' and hence should be endorsed by Parliament through a constitutional amendment.

"Since no such step was taken by the Indira Gandhi government or any subsequent governments, the Dr Manmohan Singh government should seriously consider moving the Supreme Court to test the validity of conceding Katchathiu to Sri Lanka."

"If the Prime minister is not willing to do this, I will move the Supreme Court for a direction to the government of India to do so or pray that the Apex Court set aside the ceding of Kachathivu to Sri Lanka by the Indira Gandhi Government', she said.                                                           

She said her party had always held that ceding of Katchathivu, an uninhabited island, was a 'monumental blunder' and had insisted that the attacks on Indian fishermen would cease only if the country got the islet back.

"But our protestations always fell on the deaf ears of the central government, which could care less about the problems of Tamil Nadu and the Tamil people," she said.

http://www.newindpress.com/NewsItems.asp?ID=IE920080731071822&Page=9&Title=Chennai&Topic=0

 

Pakistan to help in Colombo’s final battle against Tigers

 

The Dawn – Internet Edition, 21 August 2008 - As India continues to call for a political solution to Sri Lanka’s 25-year-old ethnic conflict, reports indicate that Pakistan has decided to bolster what Sri Lanka military says its final push to defeat Tamil Tiger rebels and end their war for a separate state in the country’s north-east.

Pakistan has pledged to send a large quantity of ammunition to help the Sri Lankan government finish off the rebels in the final phase of Elam War IV, the Sunday Leader, a Colombo-based newspaper, said in a news report.

The paper said that Pakistan had promised one shipload of the wherewithal every 10 days in coming months, adding that it was Pakistan’s assurance of solid support which prompted Sri Lankan Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapakse to publicly state that Kilinochchi, the headquarters of the LTTE, would be liberated by the end of December.

Gotabhaya Rajapakse, brother of President Mahinda Rajapakse, declared last week that the rebel-controlled Wanni would be captured by the military by the end of this year.

“It’s possible by the end of this year,” the defence secretary was quoted as saying by the Times newspaper of London last week.

 

32

 

 

“You have to search for them and completely eradicate them. Only then can peace come.” Rajapakse’s comments come in the wake of Army Chief Lt-Gen Sarath Fonseka’s declaration that his forces had wiped out the conventional military capability of the LTTE and that the Tiger rebels were no longer able to resist security forces using conventional tactics and were resorting to hit-and-run attacks.

The reported assistance from Pakistan comes as government troops began forging ahead this month with heavy fire power coupled with continuous air raids on the last two remaining rebel bastions of Killinochchi and Mullativu.

http://www.dawn.com/2008/08/21/top10.htm

 

Germany washes hands off Lanka

 

The Nation, 24 August 2008 - Germany said it has virtually washed its hands off solving the Sri Lankan ethnic conflict since its voice and advice has been ignored by the government.

German Ambassador Jürgen Weerth, addressing a forum organised by the Federation of Chamber of Commerce and Industry Sri Lanka (FCCISL), said the present government had ignored the voice of Germany with regard to solving the ethnic conflict.

He added that his country did not believe in allowing the majority community to rule over minorities. “A country should have a give-and-take policy when ruling. Each community should be given preference, instead of supporting one community,” he said.

Weerth further said that Sri Lanka should establish the rule of law and eliminate human rights violations in the country.“Sri Lanka’s Constitution should be applauded. It has covered all the major and minor sections – but those rules have not been implemented. Sri Lanka is one of those democracies that the international community has great respect for, but today we see that it has failed to meet those expectations,” he added. (AE)

http://www.nation.lk/2008/08/24/news15.htm

 

PM hits back at West

 

Daily Mirror, 26 August 2008 - Prime Minister Ratnasiri Wickremanayake yesterday charged several key foreign nations for questioning Sri Lanka’s human rights records despite their own human rights violations.

 

The Premier said that America accused Saddam Hussein of Iraq of possessing chemical weapons, who was later to be hanged despite the testimony of their own inspectors that there were no such weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.

 

“These are the people who are now questioning our human rights records at a time we are fighting against the world's most ruthless terrorist outfit,” the Premier said. He was addressing the Regional conference of Parliamentarians and National authorities in Asia on the implementation of the International Chemical Weapons Convention, held at the Colombo Hilton yesterday.

 

The premier also said “it was terrorism when the British used gas to kill hundreds of Kurdish people in their wars in West Asia or in the Middle East early last century.” “It was terrorism when they dropped an atom bomb in Hiroshima Nagasaki killing hundreds of thousands of Japanese. Those were weapons of mass destruction. That was terrorism.”

 

He also said, as far as the Government is aware there are no chemical weapons or any other weapons of mass destruction in Sri Lanka. Premier Wickremanayaka said, “We have the world's most ruthless terrorist, hiding in all parts of the country, as described by the American Criminal Investigation Agency (CIA) . Therefore we have learnt to be always alert and to be prepared.

 

“This is not to say that our local terrorists, whose terrorist acts for the last three decades or  so have been directed only against our people - with the exception of the assassination of former Prime Minister of India, Rajiv Gandhi - have chemical weapons, ” he said. “I am happy to be able to tell you that these terrorists - the LTTE, are on their last legs. The Government Security Forces have cornered them in their dens in a stretch of wilderness in the North of our country," the premier added.

 

He said the LTTE may or may not have chemical weapons, but they have caused and are causing enough death and mass destruction with or without them.

 

33

 

 

DISPLACEMENT

 

Fighting intensifies in Sri Lanka

 

112,000 flee as government vows to crush rebels

 

The Washington Times, August 23, 2008 - Colombo - Fierce fighting has displaced tens of thousands of people in northern Sri Lanka, as government troops advance deeper into the Tamil rebels' last stronghold in an aggressive bid to crush them by the end of the year.

 

More than 112,000 ethnic Tamils have fled from their homes over the past two months amid daily gun battles, shelling and air attacks, aid agencies say.

 

The United Nations estimates the total number of displaced in rebel-held areas is now around 145,000, an unprecedented level in the island nation's long-running conflict. Officials warn the figure could soar above 200,000 in the weeks ahead. (Excerpt)

http://washingtontimes.com/news/2008/aug/23/fighting-intensifies-in-sri-lanka/

 

 

Sri Lankan bishop: ‘Help war refugees’

Aid to the Church in Need, 19 August 2008 - A leading Sri Lankan Bishop has demanded increased government help for those displaced by the fighting in the north of the country.

Speaking to Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need, Bishop Thomas Savundaranayagam of Jaffna, in north Sri Lanka, described how nearly 200,000 civilians fled their homes because of the conflict between the army and separatist rebel forces.

He said: “The battle with the Liberation Tigers has now reached a peak, and people are caught in the middle. “As the troops advance, people are leaving their villages and running for their lives. They don’t know what to do.”

Bishop Savundaranayagam told ACN he was deeply concerned by the plight of those who have had to leave their homes because of the fighting.

The bishop said: “In this war the civilians are the ones who get hurt. May God preserve them in this on-going war.” The refugees, who have been driven to the middle of Kilinochchi district by the fighting, face a bleak situation, living rough and taking shelter under the trees.

 

“There is no shelter, no water, no toilets, no food, and no medical assistance,” said Bishop Savundaranayagam. Tents and other essential items were not being allowed in to the area, even though they were desperately needed to provide shelter for the homeless.

 

While the government was providing help, military restrictions meant it was not always getting through, added the bishop. He said: “The government is sending food, but only a limited number of lorries are allowed to pass through the army check point to enter the area.”

Bishop Savundaranayagam also hit out at the fact that medical aid was not being allowed through the check point to reach the homeless. “The government is not permitting necessary medicine,” he said. While Catholic aid agency Caritas is doing what it can to help, Church and humanitarian organisations are severely hampered by restrictions.

Neil Buhne of the United Nations said up to 75,000 people had been displaced in the past two and a half months alone and warned that the figure was expected to increase.

Fighting between the military and separatist rebels has intensified since the government pulled out of a six-year truce in January 2008. The Sri Lankan army captured Mannar District from the rebels and is now engaged in conflict in the Mulailthivu and Kilinochchi districts. The army guaranteed safe passage to Mannar from 12th – 17th August for the thousands who made the annual pilgrimage to the Marian shrine in Madu.

The government has poured in a record US$1.5 billion into the conflict this year, and has said that it will not stop the fighting until the rebels are wiped out.  http://members4.boardhost.com/acnaus/msg/1219112839.html

 

34

JUSTICE AND PEACE COMMISSION - WANNI

ROMAN CATHOLIC DIOCESE OF JAFFNA

St.Theresa’s Church, Kilinochchi.

                                                                                                            Date:  26 August, 2008

The Director

International Committee of the Red Cross

Iranaimadu Junction

Kilinochchi

 

Honourable Sir,

 

PROTECT THE PEOPLE OF WANNI

 

Wanni has been the eye of the war storm for the past two years. Deaths, injuries, displacements and attendant misery pervade the lives of the innocent Tamil Civilians. The Draconian economic embargo imposed slyly on Wanni has become a monstrous obstacle even in giving relief and solace to the 170,000 persons recently displaced. Day and night, Wanni is thundering with Artillery Guns, Multi Barrel Rocket Launchers, Supersonic fighter jets and Naval gun boats.

 

A great human tragedy is exploding in Wanni which is calculatedly concealed from the world outside.

 

The Sri Lankan Government and its Security Forces with scant regard to, leave alone the Geneva Ethical Codes on the Conduct of War, humanitarian concern for their fellow citizens, wage an aggressive and ruthless war in Wanni. The sanctity of the civilian settlements, hospitals, schools and places of worship and are blatantly violated with impunity.

 

The Sri Lankan security forces heavily bombard villages after villages forcing the people to flee from their traditional homeland. Not once, but again and again displacements continue. Even before the displaced people begin to settle down in one place they are shelled to flee again. This inhuman exodus goes on and on. People are languishing under trees and on the waysides, under the scorching sun and dusty winds, and in pouring rain and thundering blasts of artillery and mortar shells. Only a few of the displaced take shelter in schools, places of worship, with friends and relatives. All these innocent people continue to live amidst severe deprivations.

 

 

The assistance that reach the people from GO’s, NGO’s, INGO’s and the people of goodwill, even though praiseworthy, are not adequate to cater to the basic human needs of theirs. Even though the Government claims to allow all the necessary amenities, essentials such as Tarpaulin sheets, water containers, fuel, medical supplies and food are drastically slashed at the entry-exit points in reality. There are severe restrictions imposed on the movement of the INGO’s thus hampering their humanitarian services to the helpless displaced people.

 

Besides the old and the sick, pregnant women and lactating mothers and children are the most affected ones. School children are subjected to untold hardship and bitter and traumatic experiences. The General Certificate of Education (Advanced Level) examinations is being held in the country now and imagine the plight of these children who are sitting this exam under these tragic conditions. If the situation is such with the grown ups, imagine the plight of Grade 5 children who sat for the scholarship exam on the 17^th August, 2008. Epidemics are threatening the people in the absence of sufficient medical facilities. Drinking water has become a scarce commodity.

 

These innocent people continue to live amidst dire distress.

 

These fundamental human rights violations strike all over Wanni, and the truth of which doesn’t reach the world at large. There are numerous obstacles calculatedly laid across the path of truth so that the dissemination of it is effectively arrested. Instead, diabolic lies are spread with ease. Prevention of the media personnel from entering Wanni and reporting impartially on the horrendous situation of the innocent Tamil people is the most cruel and cunning mode of the repressive violence perpetrated by the Sri Lankan Government.

 

The call of the hour is urgent.

 

Protect the people of Wanni who are threatened with death and destruction and dehumanization. This is an ardent appeal from the Justice and Peace Commission  -  Wanni to the people of goodwill all over the world.

 

Fr. James Pathinathan,

The President,

Justice and Peace Commission-Wanni

35

 

 

IDPs flourish while locals languish in Puttlam

 

The Nation, 27 April 2008 - Clashes within the same community are not an uncommon phenomenon in the present world. Reports of such clashes have been heard from several parts of the world. While some clashes are originated due to genuine causes, most others are politically influenced. A fresh clash of this nature has erupted in Puttalam – a predominant Muslim district.

It appears though that the clashes are among the same race, they are for certain, motivated by politicians for their own political mileage.

Some of the actions taken by politicians today have resulted in both the indigenous Muslims in Puttalam and the Muslims who were part of the mass exodus in 1990, who took up residence in Puttalam, falling apart.

Basically, there is a clash between the local Muslims and the Internally Displaced People (IDPs) from the north, after the government continued to assist the IDPs, thus ignoring the locals – an act viewed by the locals as a deliberate move by the government.

 

Muslims en masse, were pushed out of the north by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in 1990. There were nearly 100,000 who fled to safer areas.

Puttalam, a fishing village that was not densely populated at that time, was considered the best choice by the politicians to send the Muslims for settlement there.

Since 1990, both the locals and the IDPs have been living in harmony. Thanks to the locals, who were ever willing to share almost everything, including their own houses, to give solace to their own brethren who had been chased out of their own traditional habitation overnight.

 

The IDPs who fled from the north following the directive issued by the LTTE, arrived in Puttalam, with only the clothes they were wearing.

Sympathy coupled with empathy, propelled the local Muslims to provide the traumatised and the war weary IDPs, with their best, to ensure they felt at home.

Growth

At first it was living at the mercy of the locals for the IDPs. They respected the locals for their magnanimity. They even went to them with their begging bowls to fill the starving stomachs of the hundreds of children who were also chased out from the north by the LTTE.

The IDPs were the cynosure of all eyes. They received the sympathy of the entire nation, including the international community.

Locals limp

The rapid development of the IDPs was never an irritation for the locals who continued to limp and struggle to make ends meet. Having already shared most of their belongings, the locals had to continue their life with whatever that was left over. The economy of the locals suddenly dwindled as they were forced to share common amenities like water, electricity and other basic facilities provided by the local government, with the new arrivals.

The facilities they had been enjoying alone for centuries had to be shared with an equal number of people from the north. This obviously reduced the locals to a refugee status, whereby, they had to now go out with their begging bowls to outsiders for help. While the IDPs were showered with all types of benefits and facilities, the locals had to depend on their own agriculture, business and fishing.

The real clash

The upward mobility of the IDPs and the gradual deterioration of the livelihood of the locals have today resulted in both sectors at each other’s throats.

Fingers are pointed at politicians who have contributed to this present chaos in Puttalam.
The locals who did not wish to express their anger and emotional pain in public have now come out in the open, after Minister of Resettlement and Disaster Rishard Baduideen decided to pump more money to build brand new houses for the IDPs, in most areas, adjacent to the huts inhabited by the locals for years.

 

36

A Kuwait aided project to resettle 500 IDPs and another World Bank project to provide houses to 7,000 IDPs and further moves by the government to build more houses to the IDPs have annoyed the locals who say their living conditions have been the same since time immemorial.

One of the main grouses of the locals is that they were prevented from growing further, economically and otherwise, because of the mass exodus in 1990.

The IDPs who entered Puttalam empty handed today control trade and agriculture in Palavi–Thillayadi, Kalpitiya, Norachcholai and Pulichankulam. The IDPs also control 50 % of the business in the main Puttalam town.

Discrimination

For instance, 500 houses have been built through a Kuwaiti assisted project, with toilet facilities to the IDPs.

 

These houses are situated in Alkasimi village, now called ‘Alkasimi City.’ This city, only a few kilometres away from the main town has a hospital, school, playground, shops and other facilities. These facilities are exclusively meant for those living in ‘Alkasimi City.’

The people living here are mostly from Dhara Puram in Mannar, a village where Minister Baduideen was born. Astonishingly, this city is run from the budgetary allocation set apart for the Northern Province.

 

Sheer violation

According to S. A. Ehiya, Wayamba (Northwestern) Provincial Council Member and Minister coordinating the work of the Chief Minister in Puttalam, this is a total violation.

He pointed out that since the arrival of the IDPs, the locals had been reduced to a refugee status.
“The IDPs have stolen our business, education and agriculture, employment in the government sector, textile industry, transport sector and many other facilities. They managed to do this because of political influence. Why is this?” Ehiya asked.

He said while the IDPs grew without any major problems, the locals had to toil and sweat for their daily bread.

He said the fact that Puttalam could not return Ministers and Members of Parliament due to its small size in population, the northern ministers and MPs have constantly tried to bulldoze their way through.

“This is a serious problem. A student from the IDP camp could study well because everything is offered to him free of charge. The food, books, shelter and all other facilities are free. He/she could think free and enter universities. While our boys have to study with lots of restrictions,” he said.

He said of the 26 students who were selected for the university entrance from the Puttalam district, only four were from the local community. “We are very upset over this,” he pointed out.

Tears

For 36 year old Fathima, mother of six, it is atrocious. She pointed out that a labourer’s job that is in demand for Rs.500, is executed by an IDP for Rs. 200 or 300.

“So, don’t you think we are losing our jobs? These people are willing to do our job for any price. They have no value for money because they get everything free. But this has severely affected our economy,” she said.

M. P. Sirajdeen (67) said while the MPs and ministers directly helped the IDPs, nobody bothered to help the locals.

“This is a curse for us. Since 1989, we have not had a MP for us. And this is what we have gained out of this,” he said. H.A.C. Niroshini (26) a Sinhala local lass, also said the living standards of the locals have not improved for the past several years because of the arrival of the IDPs.

A native of Puttalam, Nishoshini said she could not, along with her parents, simply construct a toilet or even get other facilities from the local authority, while the IDPs managed to build their castles so rapidly. W.P. Gamini Wickramasinghe, a shop owner also echoed similar sentiments and said the locals were ignored while the government constantly paid attention to the plight of the IDPs – an act he said was in violation of their basic human rights.

37

Counter

However, S.S. Jaseem, (36), father of three and also the chief camp officer attached to the ‘Alkasimi City’ charged that the locals were jealous.

Admitting he was a distant relation of Minister Rishard Baduideen, Jaseem observed the IDP’s condition improved fast owing to their courage and commitment while the locals’ living standard remained the same due to disunity and lack of understanding.

“If we, the people of Mannar can produce ministers, why can’t the people of Puttalam do the same? They have failed because they are not united. They are a bunch of jealous people and that is why they are not growing,” he thundered.

Living in a modern house built on a ten perch land at ‘Alkasimi City,’ Jaseem pointed out the people living in the city had nothing to do with the locals anymore. “This is why our minister separated us from the locals. In fact, this city is administered by the northern authority,” he admitted.

Racism

Even among the IDPs, those hailing from Mannar have been well fed while others are still languishing in make shift camps.

Saltern Sahira No. 1 – IDP camp is a classic example. There are 118 families living in deplorable conditions. According to the deputy leader of the camp, I. Nafaiz, the government has deliberately decided not to resettle the people living in this camp for its own mileage.

His observation is that this camp is kept alive as a model camp by the government to earn foreign money. He said all the foreign diplomats and ministers were escorted to this camp by the government to seek their support.

“If this camp is rehabilitated, then the government will have no other camps to show the foreign aid contributors and earn money. So, today we are caught up in this situation while others are moving forward,” he said. He boldly admitted that the arrival of the IDPs has severely affected the livelihood of the locals. “We blame the government for this,” he charged.

R. Fowzan (46) said Minister Rishard Baduideen was totally concentrating in uplifting the life standard of only those hailing from his village. “This is very unfair,” he lamented.

He said the government has requested Rs. 22,000 for water connection. “But from where can we find this money. While the favourites of the ministers get free water and electricity connections, we are charged,” he said.

Bleak future

By and large, the future of the indigenous people of Puttalam looks bleak, with the new arrivals, gobbling almost everything that is put to the locals.

The locals now are planning to agitate and lodge their protest in public. A resolution, condemning the construction of houses in the ‘Alkasimi City’ is to be moved in the north western provincial council shortly.

Also, the provincial council is seriously planning to protest against another move by the government to recruit volunteer teachers from among the IDPs who, according to council members, are not qualified for this post.

The council is also planning to introduce new laws to enable locals to obtain jobs and other perks first from the local council and the provincial council.

The World Bank (WB) that introduced a project to construct 7000 houses has already come under pressure by the locals. The WB had to stall its activities due to recent pressure by the locals.

If corrective measures are not taken forthwith, another problem related to race/cast or even language could erupt slowly but surely.

The locals therefore call upon the government to take note of their grievances and offer a quick remedy before it is too late.              http://www.nation.lk/2008/04/27/newsfe2.htm

 

38

 

Freedom of Expression

 

Call for release of website editor

Reporters Without Borders calls on the Sri Lankan government to release J. S. Tissainayagam, a Tamil journalist who has been held since March. A government minister has just said he is charged with terrorism on the basis of articles written in 2006 and his activities as the editor of a website."This respected journalist's illegal and unjust detention is being accompanied by grotesque charges that are a serious violation of the freedom of expression guaranteed in the Sri Lankan constitution,"

 

Reporters Without Borders said."How can the expression of a personal view, which is based on facts known to everyone and which does not call for violence, be an act of terrorism," the press freedom organisation said. "We urge the international community, including the European Union, to press for Tissainayagam's release.

 

"In a 12 August letter to Human Rights Watch, disaster management and human rights secretary Rajiva Wijesinha said that, after a long police investigation, Tissainayagam was now facing terrorism charges. But the only evidence he offered was a 2006 article in a magazine edited by Tissainayagam in which he spoke of an army offensive in a Tamil region that was being accompanied by a dramatic humanitarian crisis for the civilian population.

 

The letter can be read on the Peace in Sri Lanka website (http://www.peaceinsrilanka.org/).A contributor to the Sunday Times newspaper, Tissainayagam was arrested in Colombo on 7 March, just a few weeks after creating a news website called Outreachlk with funding from FLICT, an NGO supported by the German development agency GTZ.

 

The authorities extended his detention for another three months on 6 June in order to continue their investigation. The police have apparently tried to establish that articles he wrote in 2006 supported Tamil Tiger terrorism. His case was referred to the attorney-general's office on 4 July. He is being held by the anti-terrorism police in Colombo, where his lawyer has never been allowed to talk to him in private.— (Reporters Without Borders/Reporters sans frontiers 14 August 2008)

 

A Story About a Tamil Called Tissa Tissainayagam

By Eric HüblerThu.

 

March 27, 2008 - A dissident columnist is hauled away on a meaningless “detention order.” His frantic wife says he has been beaten — and is, in all likelihood, being beaten at this moment. She begs a family friend with international ties to get word out; the friend fires off an email to an influential American acquaintance, begging him to use his pull with Washington and the media to put unrelenting pressure on the embassy.

In a world full of violent opposition to insensitive authority, this must happen daily. The difference here is that the role of the influential American is to be played by me. And the gaping hole in the plan is: I’m not influential.

In 1980, as best as I remember, the American Field Service sent a Sri Lankan exchange student to my New Jersey high school, and we fell into the same clique. She was a member of a minority ethnic group, the Tamils, but that didn’t seem significant; she was the exotic kid we liked to hang out with.

Three years later, at college, I learned by crinkly, sky-blue aerogramme that she and her family narrowly escaped lynching when a mob of majority Sinhalese stormed their apartment house to avenge a guerrilla attack on the police. She became a teacher, got married, and raised her children as cycles of insurgency, counter-insurgency and parliamentary incapacity wrecked her country.

Now, thanks to a panicky email from someone I remember fondly but haven’t spoken with for decades, I find myself fretting over a man I never heard of. Knowing nothing about J.S. “Tissa” Tissainayagam except he was there and then wasn’t, I Goggled him.

It wasn’t a great way to become acquainted. I found many of his clips on what appears to be the Web site of the Tamil Tiger guerrillas — who, to their eternal damnation, pioneered the suicide bomb, making them and anyone remotely connected with them accessories to so many murders, in so many places, for so many causes that, surely, could have been addressed more intelligently.

Is Tissa a party hack? Does he deserve the international publicity without which, his wife has reason to believe, he’ll die?                                                                               39

 

“There is no such thing as an independent journalist in this country,” my schoolmate emailed. “Thirty years of viciousness has effectively cleared the middle ground…. The civic institutions and rights that the West take for granted are barely imaginable here.”

Still, she was outraged I would even raise the possibility of Tissa’s being an apologist for terrorism, pointing out that he has twice visited the United States at the government’s invitation.

Perhaps a likelier explanation of his prominence on the guerrillas’ site is that, in addition to being ruthless bastards, the Tigers are greedy bloggers and cast their links wide so as to appropriate those with cleaner reputations. They also pasted up a picture of Jesus, and say what you will about the man, he never shot up a bus.

Maybe I’m over-thinking this. Maybe the essential thing isn’t whether Tissa is a good guy, a bad guy or an enigma. Maybe in an environment as brutal as Sri Lanka has become, to write at all — to think at all — is to pick sides. And with the government resorting to “disappearances” as a political tactic, according to Human Rights Watch, there’s no right side to pick.

In any case, here’s how it’s supposed to be in a free society (or even a free-ish one, which seems to be the best any of us can expect nowadays): Nobody should be punished for having thoughts and sharing them. Not a Tibetan lama, not an Argentine rabbi, not a Palestinian poster-hanger, not a Latin American priest, not a Turkish novelist. Nobody.

The cops of the world may disagree, but there must be a distinction between those who speak reprehensibly and those who act dangerously. Who gets to draw this distinction? We do. I do. Tissa Tissainayagam is locked up, and somehow it has become my job to bust him loose. If any influential Americans read this: Any ideas?

http://tissa103.blogspot.com/2008/08/story-about-tamil-called-tissa.html

 

Release of Mr. J.S Tissainayagam,

Mr. N. Jasiharan and Mrs. Valarmathy immediately

More than 150 days of detention without charges:

15 August 2008 - Senior journalist, Sunday Times columnist and editor of the website www.outreachsl.com, Mr. J. S. Tissainayagam remains in custody without specific charges being brought against him for more than 150 days, even though the Attorney General’s department has informed the Supreme Court on July 11th 2008 that investigations are over. The Attorney General’s Department obtained time till the 20th of August 2008 to report back to courts on the status of the investigations and the next course of action. To this date there has been no evidence being produced in court justifying either the arrests or the detentions.

Mr. Tissainayagam was arrested and detained on 7th March 2008 by the Terrorist Investigation Division (TID) of the Sri Lanka Police. Mr. N. Jasiharan, owner of E-Kwality press on which premises Mr. Tissanayagam was renting office space, and his wife, Mrs. Valarmathi were detained on 6th March 2008. They have all since then been kept in continued detention under Emergency Regulations.

This is a flagrant violation of a fundamental tenet of Sri Lankan law that protects citizens from arbitrary arrest and detention, and guarantees equality before the law for all citizens, regardless of his or her ethnicity or race.

The arrest and detention of Mr. Tissainayagam, Mr. Jesiharan and Ms. Valarmathy has been without adherence to basic safeguards such as the production of valid detention orders at the appropriate time and without their production in court as required to in terms of the Emergency Regulations themselves. They have been denied the right of regular access to lawyers and family members. On the two occasions that lawyers have been able to meet Mr. Tissainayagam, it has been with a Police officer present, thus denying the privacy and confidentiality in seeking legal counsel to which he is entitled by law. As recently as in 2005, the UN Committee against Torture in its Concluding Observations on Sri Lanka reaffirmed that confidential access to legal counsel was basic to the provision of safeguards against abuse. In addition, all three detainees have been denied timely access to medical attention, resulting in their deteriorating health condition. Furthermore, there are allegations of torture of at least one of the three detainees. On June 23rd Mr. Jesiharen revealed in open court that he had been assaulted by the officers of the TID for having told the Judicial Medical Officer the extent of his injuries, inflicted on him by the Police.

The arrest and detention of these persons reiterates a concern that we have consistently voiced regarding the process of arrest and detention under Emergency Regulations: that in many cases, the process as followed infringes on a basic principle consistently articulated by the Supreme Court in the past, namely that the Secretary to the Ministry of Defence is authorized to arrest and detain a person upon material submitted to him or upon such further additional material as may be called for by him, only where he is satisfied that such a step is necessary in order to prevent such person from acting in any manner prejudicial to national security or to the maintenance of public order.

As the Court has stated, the notion of reasonableness cannot be negated to the point where the essence of the safeguard secured by Article 13 (1) of the Constitution is abrogated. It is our view that the circumstances and context of Mr Tissainayagam’s arrest and detention, as well as the detention of his colleagues, lacks all the requisite aspects of reasonable arrest and detention.

40

 

The onus is on the Attorney General of Sri Lanka to demonstrate that there is respect and adherence to the Constitution and national laws by presenting whether there is credible and substantial evidence to further detain the three. It is also an opportune moment for the Attorney General to demonstrate that the arrests and detentions are not motivated by other interests including ethnic or political. The onus is upon the Attorney General to demonstrate that the arrests and detentions are in accordance with the law and that due process has been followed. As the head of the Attorney General’s Department, the Attorney General has the power to decide whether to pursue a case if there is sufficient credible evidence or whether to suspend investigations. He should only be dictated by the evidence and not by other factors or persons.

We are also concerned in particular about the arrest and detention of Mr. Tissainayagam because of the impact that this has on broader issues of the freedom of expression and media freedom in the country. As civil society organizations committed to the democratic principles of human rights and freedoms including freedom of expression, we feel that Mr. Tissainayagam’s arrest has reaffirmed the fear prevailing within the media community in Sri Lanka today, that publication of any opinion that provides critical analysis of the situation in the country could lead to persecution, arbitrary arrest, disappearance and even assassination. The sad fact that nine media persons have been killed in Sri Lanka over the past 2 years and that many more have been subjected to physical and mental harassment and assault bears out our concerns regarding Mr. Tissainayagam. Investigations into these crimes against journalists have gone nowhere. The perpetrators of these violations go unpunished, and the cycle of terror and impunity which grips contemporary Sri Lanka is strengthened.

It is in this context that we call upon the State to remedy this grave injustice to a journalist who was engaged in expressing his opinions on the state of human rights in the country within the boundaries of the law. The continued detention of Mr. Tissainayagam, Mr. N. Jasiharan and Ms. Valarmathy, without charges is an affront to justice and we call for due process and the release of all the detainees without further delay.

Asian Human Rights Commission -           Association of Family Members of the Disappeared
Centre for People’s Dialogue                   -           Centre for Policy Alternatives
Christian Alliance for Social Action         -           Civil and Political Rights Program, Law & Society Trust
EQUAL GROUND, Sri Lanka                     -           Free Media Movement
Federation of Media Employees Trade Union -       Home for Human Rights
Human Rights Centre, Kandy                   -           Human Rights in Conflict Program, Law & Society Trust
IMADR Asia Committee                           -           INFORM Human Rights Documentation Centre
Mothers and Daughters of Lanka              -           Muslim Women's Research and Action Forum
National Peace Council                           -           Right to Life Human Rights Centre
Rights Now Collective for Democracy       -           20. Sri Lanka Muslim Media Forum
21. Sri Lanka Tamil Journalists Alliance  -           22. Sri Lanka Working Journalists Association
Women and Media Collective                   -           Women's Support Group, Sri Lanka
The Ven G S K Francis, Archdeacon of Kurunagala and Commissary for the Anglican Bishop of Kurunagala
The Ven Dhiloraj Canagasabey, Archdeacon of Nuwara Eliya and Commissary for the Anglican Bishop of Colombo
Rev. Fr S. Maria Anthony, sj, President, Conference of Major Religious Superiors
Rev. Fr. Praveen, OMI, Centre for Peace and Reconciliation
Dr. Hasbullah, University of Peradeniya
Dr. Jehan Perera
Mr. Herman Kumara
Mr. Lal Wijenayake
Mr. Dharmasiri Bandaranayake

http://tissa104.blogspot.com/2008/08/release-of-mr-js-tissainayagam-mr-n.html

 

Tissainayagam transferred to remand prison from TID

 

Daily Mirror, 21 August 2008 - The Colombo Magistrate yesterday ordered senior journalist and Sunday Times columnist J. S. Tissainayagam who was in TID custody be transferred to the remand prison.

 

The court made this order when the TID informed court that Tissainayagam and two other suspects V. Jesiharan and Valarmathy Vadiwel who were arrested under emergency regulation for publishing a magazine have been indicted in the Colombo High Court.

 

Tissainayagam was arrested by the Terrorist Investigation Division (TID) on March 7, at the TID premises when he went to see his colleague N. Jesiharan and Valarmathy who were detained there. Since then all the three suspects were kept there under a detention order. Last Friday indictments were filed against the three suspects before the Colombo High Court and trial was fixed for August 25.

 

Tissainayagam is charged with publishing and distributing the magazine ‘North Eastern Monthly’ which was said to have put the government into disrepute and the other two accused were charged with aiding and abetting the said offence. Tissainayagam was indicted on three counts including committing an offence by printing, publishing and distributing the magazine ‘North Eastern Monthly’ during the period June 1, 2006 to June 1, 2007 and thereby committing an office punishable under the Prevention of Terrorism  Act (PTA). He was also charged under the Emergency Regulations for making payments or collecting funds from Non-Governmental Organisation to run the said magazine. http://www.dailymirror.lk/DM_BLOG/Sections/frmNewsDetailView.aspx?ARTID=23977

 

41

Annexes

 

PRESS STATEMENT from the Archbishop of Colombo

 

On the Vatican Radio news report published locally

(http://www.archdioceseofcolombo.com/news.php?id=421)

 

The responses I gave to some questions addressed to me by a reporter of Vatican Radio have been completely distorted in a news bulletin released by "The Official Government News Portal of Sri Lanka"- www.news.lk dated 24.07.2008 and quoted by several other news agencies and websites,  adding a completely misleading title - "Military defeat of LTTE pre-condition for peace - Archbishop Oswald Gomis" .

 

In summary, the Vatican Radio reporter asked me whether the war had escalated in Sri Lanka and whether there were any prospects of peace.

 

In reply I admitted that the war had escalated. And said that there were many who today believed that war was the only solution to the conflict because peace talks have so far not been successful and a war mentality is in vogue. Accordingly, I said the belief of many today was - "first of all you must crush them (the LTTE) if you want to have a peaceful solution. That's what most of the people are thinking and that has become a common opinion" and added very clearly "not that we share it" (this opinion).

 

This portion in emphasis also appears quoted in the very bulletin aforementioned attributed to me. Therefore, how could the statement "Military defeat of LTTE pre-condition for peace" be attributed to me in the bulletin? It is an obvious contradiction and distortion.

 

On the other hand, as reported in the same news bulletin, I mentioned - "the ideal would be if they could come to terms...." which meant that a negotiated political settlement would be the best in my opinion.

 

On the matter of peace talks I said that according to news reports the government had announced it was ready to talk provided the LTTE laid down arms; but the LTTE had responded that they were not ready to do so. "So it's a stalemate there". I further added that in these circumstances there were no hopes of peace talks in the immediate future.

 

I trust the above makes my position clear. The news headline is a complete distortion of my responses to the Vatican Radio reporter, and is grossly misleading.

 

 

+Oswald Gomis                                                                                26^th July 2008

Archbishop of Colombo

 

 

Why is the International Community silent?

Silent socialists, ardent liberals, and enlightened social democrats why you are silent?

-- Dr Vickramabahu Karunaratna

 

I am very thankful to the organisers of this massive event for inviting me. I know that there were such mass meetings throughout the world.

 

Tamil people have rallied round to support the ongoing struggle for liberation. Some Tamils who had misgivings and criticism have come in to support the ongoing struggle at this critical moment.

 

We as the NSSP and the LEFT FRONT have supported consistently the liberation fighters and the fight since 1974. We have participated in Pongu Tamil and other mass actions with liberation fighters whenever we were invited. in future too we shall continue to support.

 

Mahinda Rajapaksa, with the support of the world powers and particularly the support of India has launched a ferocious war to recapture the Tamil homeland. Sinhala armed forces are given full backing by the Indian navy which covers the high sea surrounding the Tamil homeland. They have boasted that all resources coming by sea has been captured. At the same time world powers have hunted the Tamil Diaspora to eliminate the support for the Tamil liberation struggle.

42

 

After two and half years Mahinda dream has not come true. Lies distortions and pretensions have been used to cover up the truth. Truth has become a dirty word. Journalist and media organisations that have exposed fraud, corruption and inhumanity in the war conducted against the Tamil people are attacked. Both Tamil and Sinhala journalists are brutally attacked and some are killed. Muslim journalists are given special attacks to cow them down.

All this has not concealed the truth that the Tamil liberation struggle survives basically because majority of the Tamil people are supporting it. Supporters of the repressive regime, both local and abroad, call the Tamil struggle, a terrorist project. They have failed to explain how these oppressed poor Tamils surrounded by a formidable enemy with powerful friends, defending day by day, month by month and year by year. Clearly it is a Nation in uprising and not a sectarian exercise in terrorism!

 

Government has lost not only in the north but also in the south. Patriotic war by Sinhala heroes has seen to be corrupt, foolish, personal project of Mahinda and his yes men. Already the JVP has split away leaving the government unstable. They are launching struggle in all fronts facing violence and intimidation. Somawansa says this may be the last time they vote for the emergency! Inflation repression has pushed even the JVP to strike action. Mahinda says that the JVP now is backed by the LTTE.

 

Fools and knaves resort to anything to safe guard their misdeeds. We must expect in the coming period strong battles in the south destabilising Mahinda regime. This means the war has devastated the entire country. Not only the Tamils but also the Sinhala majority is made miserable.

 

We ask the international community why you are silent to this crime against humanity. With our appeal world socialists led by Fourth International have come out supporting the Tamil struggle for liberation. Other socialists are joining. Indian Left Front is for autonomy to the Tamil homeland.

 

We want to know from the silent socialists, ardent liberals, and enlightened social democrats why you are silent.

 

Look at this sea of people and tell these masses what you are prepared to do?

 

Dr Vickramabahu Karunaratna

Leader of the NSSP, Leftist Party in Sri Lanka

July 2008

 

 

SRI LANKA

Clampdown on International NGOs

COLOMBO, Aug 11 (IPS) - Accusing international non-government organisations (INGOs) of disseminating ‘wrong’ information to media on the civil war with Tamil rebels and rights issues, the government has moved to tighten the visa regime for foreign workers in this country.

"The government wants to control the number of people going into sensitive (conflict) areas due to negative stories appearing in the media overseas," said a foreign humanitarian worker who declined to be named. "We are careful not to criticise the government. There is a kind of subtle censorship. We are careful what we say or visas could get cancelled," she said.

President Mahinda Rajapakse's nationalist government has always frowned on the activities of INGOs, particularly those promoting peace or involved in humanitarian work in war-torn areas where rebels control territory.

Since the December 2004 tsunami, which laid waste to a large part of this island country’s coastline, there has been a proliferation of INGOs promising to bring relief to the survivors. Efforts to bring order to these humanitarian agencies have been complicated by intensified fighting between government troops and Tamil rebels over the last two years.

Both United Nations agencies and NGOs have raised the issue of civilian casualties from the war coming on top of tsunami resettlement issues, especially in the Tamil-dominated north and east, annoying the government.

In a report released in June, the United Nations Economic and Social Council said that the war was seriously hampering tsunami reconstruction work. "The most significant challenge to the recovery process in Sri Lanka is ongoing civil conflict. Escalating violence over the past few years has set back reconstruction efforts in the north and east of the country, though it continues largely apace in the south," stated the report.

 

43

 

The ministry of internal administration, responsible for registration and control of NGOs, justifies the ‘streamlining’ of procedures relating to the grant of visas to expatriates working with NGOs, saying that a large influx of expatriates for 'reconstruction and rehabilitation work' has made the issue of visas complicated.

Gomin Dayasiri, a prominent lawyer, told IPS in an interview that the restrictions on foreign workers are essentially because of a few NGOs. "The new rules on NGO personnel are the consequence of a cause-and-effect syndrome created by a stupid few in the NGO mainstream which has unfortunately discredited the silent and substantial contribution made by many in the NGO community in our society.’’

Dayasiri, who insists he is not anti-NGO or a nationalist as perceived to be, says a 'visible and vocal' few tend to equate the terrorists with freedom fighters and those who fight terrorism as vultures of human rights.

"With the war going against the terrorists now, they (some NGOs) are even worse than terrorists. At least the terrorists fought for a cause they believed in for which they were prepared to sacrifice their lives. The NGO vocalists sang for their supper for which they were rewarded and now the entire NGO community has to suffer being regulated. The bottom line is that the nationalists have now set rules for the internationalists for being unbalanced and getting their equation bizarre," he said.

Recently, Dayasiri appeared for the Sri Lanka army in a court case to defend it against accusations that it was responsible for the massacre of 17 local aid workers attached to an INGO. On Aug. 6, 2007, 17 workers, including four women, were found shot dead in the office of Paris-based humanitarian group, Action Contre la Faim (ACF), in the eastern town of Muttur, soon after the army had captured the town from the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).

While the government said the LTTE was responsible for the massacre, the rebels and human rights activists have been pointing fingers at the army. The issue came into the international spotlight with several western governments backing the ACF’s call for an independent investigation. In June this year, ACF pulled out of a presidential probe into the killings, saying it was disappointed with the way legal proceedings were going and "the blatant lack of will of the Sri Lankan government to establish the truth."

"ACF sees the launching of an international inquiry as the only reliable means for identifying the perpetrators,’’ ACF executive director Francois Danel said.

Earlier to that on Mar. 31 the International Independent Group of Eminent Persons (IIGEP), headed by former Indian chief justice P. N. Bhagwati, withdrew from its watchdog role. It charged the presidential probe with failing to investigate 16 high-profile incidents of rights violations in 2006 and 2007 and falling short of international norms and standards. The IIGEP had experts from 11 countries: India, France, Indonesia, the U.S., the Netherlands, Bangladesh, Canada, Cyprus, Britain, Australia and Japan.

The new rules governing NGOs will not apply to U.N. agencies and accredited foreign organisations that work with the government. Sri Lankan authorities, in addition to tightening rules for expatriate workers, also want to reduce the number of expatriates hired by NGOs.

The maximum period of visa for an expatriate worker is three years as against earlier when the period could be extended. The rules permit the head and deputy to be expatriate appointments, but organisations have been told they must advertise all other positions locally and only if unavailable, would an expatriate be permitted to fill these positions. "The concept here is that NGOs should recruit locally as far as possible and should only find expertise for the posts which cannot be filled locally due to unavailability of suitable candidates," the regulation says.

Expatriate workers must be cleared by the defence ministry; their dependants or family members cannot work; and their visa is invalid once they quit the job before the work contract ends. There have been many cases, in the past, of expatriate workers changing jobs and remaining in the country for periods of up to eight to 10 years.

The head of a peace-promoting INGO says many of these restrictions have been in place over the past year but on an ad hoc basis. "In that sense this is welcome because it brings these together and streamlines them into a formal process," he said, adding that the situation during the tsunami was 'very unruly' and complex for local authorities.

"There were many problems caused by foreign NGO workers and I believe the concern of government over the large number of expatriate workers, to some extent, is justified," he said. In some cases the number of foreign workers per INGO jumped to 50 from just four after the tsunami. However, he said, the challenge for NGOs is not in the rules but whether officials would make it more difficult for expatriates to operate with all this bureaucracy and procedures. The process of appeals of rejection of visa applications has also not been clearly laid out, he said.

 

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U.N. workers are permitted to stay on four-year visas which may be extended in exceptional cases. But a senior U.N. worker said the rules would affect dozens of foreign volunteers who work for U.N. Volunteers (UNV). She said the government was also making it difficult for expatriates to work in war-devastated areas, particularly sections of the northern Wanni region which are controlled by the rebels. "There is too much paper-work, time and energy involved in bringing down expatriates and then more rules to get them into conflict areas," she added.

The proposed new law governing NGOs is the culmination of an exercise last year by a parliamentary committee that has been probing NGOs and their activities. Included in its probe were details from NGOs of journalists, politicians, government and private sector officers who have directly or indirectly benefited through NGOs.

Last year NGOs operating in conflict areas were accused in the media of funding Tamil rebels. Among these groups were Save the Children, Britain, World Food Programme (WFP) and the Swiss-based ZOA. They have all vigorously denied the allegations and said humanitarian aid was meant for affected people.

In some cases, the parliamentary committee cancelled or did not extend the visas of 40 foreign workers for security reasons -- implying suspicion of links with the Tigers.

There are more than 1,000 registered NGOs in Sri Lanka, with at least ten percent of that number being INGOs.        (END/2008)      http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=43509

 

 

Lanka pays Washington lobbyists

to clean her image

 

The Sunday Leader, 3 August 2008 - Rather than address human rights concerns as a responsible democratic government, the Rajapakse regime has taken upon itself to pay millions of tax payers' rupees to foreign lobbyists to whitewash its domestic mess.

 

To this end, on January 22 this year Sri Lanka's former Ambassador to Washington Bernard Goonetilleke, at the instigation we learn of Foreign Affairs Ministry Secretary Palitha Kohona, was to write to several selected public relations companies stating that the Government of Sri Lanka was looking to appoint a firm to provide strategic lobbying services in the following areas.

 

Areas of concern

 

(1) Counteract and mitigate any negative publicity/public relations campaigns including fund raising activities by the LTTE and its front organisation in the US.

 

(2) Building up a "Positive Image" of Sri Lanka among the Executive Branch, the Congress human rights organisations, opinion makers, think tanks, NGOs and church groups/interfaith religious  groups. (Please see letter elsewhere on this page)

 

Further to this, the government (GOSL) recently signed a contract with the American firm - Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck, LLP (BHFS) to obtain 'lobbying services' at a cost of approximately  Rs.64.2 million (US$600,000) for a period of one year with effect from June 1, 2008. Moreover, an administrative fee of US$5000 per month was also agreed upon by the GOSL. This of course is excluding all international travel and accommodation bills or other unusual fees (not specified) for a team of lawyers and professionals who may be assigned to represent the Government of Sri Lanka.

 

Curiously, a cheque for the sum of US$300,000 (aprox Rs.32.1 million) was sent by the Foreign Affairs Ministry as early as May 21 to BHFS as initial payment on the contract. 

 

Ironically the government is willing to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars on lobbying church groups abroad while back home local churches are being torched and attacked by extreme elements instigated by politically motivated monks.  

 

It would be far more cost effective  if the officers at Sri Lanka's Washington Mission were to perform their duty of maintaining positive relationships with the White House, Congress, Department of State and others rather than shift its burden to lobby firms at the expense of Sri Lanka's suffering public.

 

45

 

 

Skirting scrutiny

 

Alas, the task is now Herculian with the likes of Jaliya Wickremasuriya being appointed as Goonetilleke's successor in Washington. An appointment that skirted proper Parliamentary High Posts Committee scrutiny by bringing up the matter during House prorogation, before a depleted committee of just five government ministers, chaired by Prime Minister Ratnasiri Wickremanayake.

 

This appointment in fact sent shockwaves through the diplomatic and professional community more so because Washington is the very fulcrum of Sri Lanka's diplomatic relations with the world.

 

And so mediocre was the appointment it fell upon the Foreign Ministry to entreat such a man as Deputy Solicitor General Yasantha Kodagoda to take up an appointment as deputy ambassador to Washington with head of mission status. This was  the post of deputy head of mission under Wickremasuriya.

 

Kodagoda was asked to take up the appointment so he could liaise with US officials, lobby members of congress, State and Justice Departments. Kodagoda turned down the offer for personal reasons.

 

Certainly Sri Lanka will face more tough times ahead. US Congressional leaders have from time to time written both to President Bush and President Rajapakse, urging the  latter to immediately address Sri Lanka's dismal human rights record while calling upon the former to pressure the Sri Lankan government with economic sanctions.

 

Many of the senators and House representatives who have signed letters have been a part of the Sri Lankan caucus within Congress. Recently the House moved a resolution calling for an international monitoring presence in Sri Lanka.

 

The Head of the European Union Parliamentary Delegation that visited Sri Lanka last week, Robert Evans, warned last Friday that the Sri Lankan government will have to face the consequences due to its deteriorating human rights record.

 

Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs, Richard Boucher, told the Rediff news website Friday that while Washington fully recognises the terrorist threat Sri Lanka continues to face from the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, it should act like a democracy and protect all of its citizens.

 

"We recognise the threat, we recognise that we have to fight against terrorism, but we also think very strongly as we always have that Sri Lanka is fundamentally a democracy and that a democracy needs to be extended to all its citizens," he had reportedly said.

 

It is obvious then that the Foreign Secretary himself, Palitha Kohona, was fully aware of the formidable task that lay before the Washington lot. Nonetheless, the government continues to appoint unqualified, inefficient relatives to their most important missions.

 

The public pays

 

And so dismal is the lot of the Sri Lankan public that now it has to pay out of its own coffers to prop up the image of a government that sends nincompoops to man its first lines of defence - the diplomatic missions, and will not address the deteriorating human rights record at home. Instead, they seek to further burden the poor of this land by spending millions on Public Relations (PR) and Government Relations (GR) companies.

 

And here's how it was done in Washington. Former Ambassador Bernard Goonetilleke who just this Friday assumed the role of Chairman, Sri Lankan Institute of Tourism and Hotel Management, was to first call for proposals from PR/GR companies by firing off a letter to several targeted companies in Washington DC on January 22, 2008.

 

The four page letter which attached Terms of Reference called on the companies to send in a comprehensive proposal by February 5 this year, which included :

 

(1) Experience in representing foreign governments in similar lobbying work in the US;

(2) Strategic Plan of Action that would be pursued in achieving stated objectives; and

(3) Monthly charges

 

The contact for this enterprise according to Goonatilleke's letter was none other than Seyed A.Z. Moulana, Minister (Economic). Moulana of course shot to fame as the UNP MP who brought down Karuna Amman from his eastern hide-out in Batticaloa and put him up at the JAIC Hilton in Colombo following his split from the LTTE. When this came to light he resigned from the UNP and thereafter fled the country to the United States pleading a security threat.

46

 

Thereafter he was appointed by President Rajapakse as the minister in charge of economic affairs at the Washington Mission, though his diplomatic status, it is learnt, is still in question given his former humanitarian status.   

 

It is learnt that only three firms responded. That is Patton Boggs - one of the best known lobbying companies in the US, BGR International - which describes itself as the premier bipartisan government relations, strategic consulting, mergers & acquisitions and investment firm in Washington D.C. and founded  in 1991, and Foley and Hoag - a law firm.

 

According to informed sources in Washington, Patton Boggs is currently ranked number one in the lobbying business.

 

 

Target audience

 

The Terms of Reference (TOR) stated in detail the target audiences of the enterprise which included the White House, National Security Council, the Departments of State, Defence, Justice, Commerce, Treasury, USAID and the Millennium Challenge Corporation.

 

It also specified as a target Capitol Hill and Congressional committees with special emphasis on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Appropriations Committee and the Sri Lanka Caucus in the House.

 

The TOR also looked at leading print media such as the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, radio, cable and regional and local media outlets. (Please see elsewhere on this page for Terms of Reference)

 

Ironically, the TOR was one that should have been handed over to the Mission in Washington with able men and women at its helm. An efficient team in Washington would have saved the country millions of rupees and handled the target audience itself - rupees that have now been spent on a firm which sources allege the Government of Sri Lanka did not even properly assess before granting the contract.

 

During Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe's brief government in 2001-2003 it was the personal relationship that existed between the Washington Embassy and the Department of State at the time that enabled such a close bond between the two nations. It was the personal contact with such a man as Richard Armitage at the time that gave Sri Lanka the edge and kept this country on the US radar screen in a positive way.

 

This did not happen simply because millions were spent on lobbyists. It happened because proper, qualified men and women ran the embassies with the ability to develop close contact with relevant target audiences including the White House and Congress.

 

Enter BHFS

 

Somewhere between February 5 - the deadline for proposals and March 11, discussions had got underway between another totally new company called Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck (BHFS). Negotiations now took place  between the Deputy Chief of Mission Tissa Wijeratne and this new company.

 

Sources allege the company was not even an original bidder and had been brought in without evaluation. This newspaper sent a series of relevant questions regarding this contract to the Washington Embassy to which we received no reply up to the time of publication. We will publish their response, if any, next week.

 

The BHFS law firm describes itself as a unique law firm that allows its attorneys, legislative consultants and legal staff to stay ahead of their clients' needs and provide them with the resources they require to meet their business objectives.  However Washington sources allege the Government of Sri Lanka did no proper evaluation of the company to ascertain if the company was suitable to deliver as specified in the TOR.

 

Nonetheless on March 11, BHFS wrote to Palitha Kohona as follows:

 

"You have asked us, and we have agreed, subject to our firms conflicts of interest check, to act as government relations counsel for the Government of Sri Lanka."

 

Wither PR?

 

The letter itself clearly talks of government relations and does not mention PR in any way.

47

 

It goes on to say, "Pursuant to this agreement we will advise and assist the Government of Sri Lanka with issues related to Sri Lanka and the United States of America. Involving activities in Congress and the Executive Branch, including seeking meetings and consultations for representatives of Sri Lanka, to include its President and other government officials, from time to time, in order to enhance the awareness, understanding and needs of Sri Lanka which is the oldest democracy in South Asia and to strengthen the relationship between Sri Lanka and the USA. The purpose of this letter is to confirm the terms and conditions of Brownsteins Hyatt Farbor Schreck's (BHFS) representation of the Government of Sri Lanka's interests."

 

According to the letter of engagement signed on April 18, 2008 by Alfred E. Mottur - attorney at law on behalf of BHFS and Palitha Kohona on behalf of the Foreign Affairs Ministry the agreement is to be for a period of three years effective April 1, 2008 (this date was later changed to June 1 in a subsequent letter).

 

The BHFS retainer per month would be US$50,000 (Rs.5.35 million) for the first 12 months with the sum of  US$600,000 for the first six months payable at the execution of the agreement. GOSL and BHFS would agree on the fees for year two and three 30 days before the end of the first year of the contract. 

 

Circumvented

 

In this April 1 letter, BHFS emphasises that it provides a wide array of legal and public policy services to many clients around the world. "These services include legislative and administrative representation on matters that may affect your interests, directly or indirectly. Therefore as a condition of our undertaking to represent any client on a particular matter as described in this engagement letter we hereby ask you as we do each of our clients to wave objection to any conflict of interest that may be deemed to be created by our representation of other clients in legislative or administrative policy matters that are unrelated to the specific representation we have been asked to undertake on your behalf," the letter of engagement accepted to and signed by Kohona and Mottur states.

 

By May 21, Ambassador Goonetilleke writes to Alfred Mottur of BHFS stating he has been instructed by the Foreign Affairs Ministry to make the initial payment of US$ 300,000 and that notwithstanding the effective date of agreement as per discussions between BHFS and Deputy Chief of Mission Tissa Wijeratne, the new effective date of the agreement was to be June 1. A cheque for the said sum was enclosed with the letter for the period June 1 to October 31 2008. (See letter)

 

As per US regulations such agreements require that BHFS register under the Foreign Agents Registration Act with the US Department of State.

 

A copy of the Registration Statement is then provided to the Secretary of State, and are routinely made available to other agencies, departments and Congress. The Attorney General also transmits a semi annual report to Congress which lists the names of all agents registered under the Act and the foreign principals they represent.  

 

Accordingly by June 12 BHFS had lodged their registration statement No.5870 naming as their foreign principal the Government of Sri Lanka and the address of the foreign principal as "c/o Dr. Palitha Kohona, Secretary, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Republic Building, Colombo 1."

 

A description of the activities engaged in by the registrant went as follows: "Advise and assist Government of Sri Lanka with issues related to Sri Lanka and the United States. Proposed activities include meetings and consultations for representatives of Sri Lanka with members of Congress and executive branch officials in order to enhance US awareness and understanding of Sri Lanka and to strengthen the relationship between the two nations."

 

Political activity engaged in by the registrant has been described in the statement as "Meet with Members of Congress and Executive Branch officials to strengthen the relationship between the United States and Sri Lanka."

 

Answers needed

Many questions arise. Did the embassy appoint a Technical Evaluation Committee (TEC) and who headed this committee? Was the evaluation sent to the Foreign Affairs Ministry for approval?

 

If BHFS was not an original bidder how were they able to secure the contract? While the other three bidders responded in collaboration with PR firms as the Terms of Reference specified public relations (PR) and government relations (GR) lobbying BHFS does not specify any PR activity as per documents.

 

A payment of US$300,000 was made up front in May though contract is effective June 1. Isn't this irregular? Has the embassy evaluated BHFS performance of deliverables before making payment and especially as per Terms of Reference objectives of building a positive image among the executive branch, administration, congress, HR organisations, opinion makers, think tanks, NGOs, church groups/interfaith religious groups?

48

 

Be that as it may, the bottom line is this. Whether BHFS is the most suitable lobby company or otherwise is immaterial to the argument that the Government of Sri Lanka has no business spending public funds willy nilly on lobbyists while continuing to flout the rule of law and the rules of war with impunity.

 

It has no moral right to use public funds to fatten the pockets of professional lobbyists in the United States when it can easily appoint able men and women who are qualified to its Mission in Washington whose duty it would be to work as per the TOR.

 

It is astounding that the government would pay lobbyists millions of rupees to do the work for its ambassador while he too is maintained on public funds and sits about smiling prettily, much like his first cousin back home. http://www.thesundayleader.lk/20080803/spotlight.htm

 

A genocide inquiry?

Sri Lanka's Sinhala Buddhist defence secretary

Bruce Fein

 

Washington Times, August 20, 2008 - Bosnia has its Radovan Karadzic, Sudan has its Omar Bashir and the United States could have its Gotabhaya Rajapaksa. He is a United States citizen serving as Sri Lanka's Sinhala Buddhist defence secretary who may be complicit in an ongoing genocide against Sri Lanka's Tamils.

While Mr. Rajapaksa enjoys a presumption of innocence, the United States should be investigating to ensure it is as scrupulous in genocide enforcement as is expected of foreign governments.

Until Mr. Karadzic's recent capture by Serbia, the United States had imposed economic sanctions against the Serbian government for noncooperation with the International Criminal Tribunal. An additional earmark of United States abhorrence of genocide is the Office of Special Investigations (OSI) in the U.S. Justice Department. It is tasked to investigate individuals complicit in Nazi-sponsored acts of persecution who subsequently entered the United States by fraud. The guilty are denaturalized or deported.

The OSI would thus be well suited to lead a genocide investigation of the defence secretary. The United States criminal code prohibits the crime, wherever perpetrated, by a United States national, green-card holder or any other person found or brought into the country.

Adolf Hitler's "Mein Kampf" featuring anti-Jewish diatribes previewed the Holocaust. The parallel political dynamic at work in Sri Lanka is the Buddhist Mahavamsa combined with Buddhist monk teachings that non-Buddhist Tamils must be exterminated to honour Buddha's vision of an ethnically pure Sri Lankan state. As recently as July 20, 2008, AFP news service quoted Mr. Rajapaksa's close colleague, Lt. Gen. Sarath Fonseka, as describing Sri Lanka as a "Sinhala nation" to the exclusion of Tamils. That exclusionary concept is reminiscent of Hitler's ambition to make Nazi Germany "judenfrei," or free of Jews. And just as Hitler's Waffen SS was pure Aryan, the Rajapksa-Fonseka Sri Lankan armed forces are virtually pure Sinhala.

An investigation of Defence Secretary Rajapaksa would seem amply justified by the benchmarks of the Karadzic or Bashir indictment or arrest warrant. All three are potentially culpable under the time-honoured doctrine of command responsibility. Generally speaking, it imposes criminal liability on government superiors who either knew or had reason to know of war crimes by subordinates and neglected to take reasonable measures to prevent or to punish the perpetrators.

Mr. Karadzic confronts a trial for, among other things, genocide of thousands of Bosnian Muslims at Srebrenica before the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. On July 14, 2008, Luis Moreno-Ocampo, prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, applied for an arrest warrant against President Bashir. The application accused him of genocide by killing, raping and starving members of the Fur, Masalit and Zaghawa ethnic groups.

The prosecutor specially emphasized that President Bashir "denies victims [of genocide] access to the criminal justice system, while using the system against those who did not comply with his genocidal orders. [He] protects, promotes and provides impunity to his subordinates, in order to secure their willingness to continue committing crimes. He could authorize investigations of members of the armed and security forces, but the only officers investigated are those who refuse to participate in crimes." Prosecutor Moreno-Ocampo concluded: "Al Bashir's motive was control of power. His pretext was a 'counterinsurgency.' His intent was genocide."

There is reason to believe that Gotabhaya Rajapaksa has been complicit in a Srebrenica-like genocide or worse against Sri Lanka's Tamils on the instalment plan. Since entering office in November 2005, he has been witness to the extrajudicial killings of more than 1,500 Tamils, torture, scores of kidnappings, countless arbitrary detentions and displacement of more than 250,000, a staggering percentage of Tamils who have not fled abroad seeking asylum. The Asian Human Rights Commission reported on Feb. 2, 2007: "A disappearance every five hours [in Sri Lanka] is a result of a deliberate removal of all legal safeguards against illegal detention, murder and illegal disposal of bodies."                                                                                           49

 

The U.S. State Department's 2007 human rights report on Sir Lanka elaborated: "[T]he overwhelming majority of victims of human rights violations, such as killings and disappearances, were young male Tamils. Credible reports cited unlawful killings by government agents, assassinations by unknown perpetrators, politically motivated killings and child soldier recruitment by paramilitary forces associated with the government, disappearances, [and] arbitrary arrests and detentions. ... By year's end, extrajudicial killings occurred in Jaffna on a daily basis and allegedly perpetrated by military intelligence units or associated paramilitaries."

There has not been a single prosecution for these crimes. Indeed, in the entire 60-year history of the Sinhala-Buddhist dominated governments in Sri Lanka, no crime against a Tamil has ever been punished - a grisliness that apes Hitler's impunity for Nazi crimes against Jews.

The United States cannot credibly berate other countries over lax assistance in genocide prosecutions if does not meticulously enforce its own genocide prohibitions. Gotabhaya Rajapaksa deserves a presumption of innocence. An investigation could exonerate him of criminality. But both direct and circumstantial evidence militate in favour of taking at hard look at what has been done and is being done to Sri Lanka's Tamils.

 

Bruce Fein is a constitutional lawyer at Bruce Fein & Associates and a representative of Tamils Against Genocide, a nonprofit organization dedicated to the prosecution of perpetrators of genocide against Tamils.

http://washingtontimes.com/news/2008/aug/20/a-genocide-inquiry/

 

Black July 1983

by blackjuly83.com, July, 2008

Sri Lanka's Week of Shame - an eyewitness account

N.Shanmugathasan, Leader, Ceylon Communist Party (Maoist)

N. Shanmugathasan, Leader, Ceylon Communist Party (Maoist), writing anonymously in Race &Class, A Journal for Black & Third World Liberation Volume XXVI Summer 1984 Number 1: Sri Lanka: Racism and the Authoritarian state.

 

For the second time in my life (the first was during the 1958 communal riots), I had to undergo the indignities associated with being a Tamil in Sri Lanka. This time, it was under the Dharmista (Righteousness) government of Junius Richard Jayewardene.

 

Although communal violence has been frequent in Sri Lanka, it had previously always been contained. But not so, this time. It was a horrifying nightmare – looting, burning, murder on an unimaginable scale. Colombo resembles a bombed city in places – charred and blackened, roofless gaping buildings where prosperous houses, shops and factories once stood. What is dreadful to realise is that the whole operation was planned and carried out with virtually military precision. Tamil and Indian houses, shops and factories had quite clearly been marked out earlier. And although everything took place so quickly and over such a large area, giving the idea of spontaneity, everywhere the pattern was the same. As the BBC is reported to have said: 'The idea seems to have been to destroy the economic base of the Tamils.' It was an attempt at genocide.

 

Someone seemed to have planned the whole thing and waited only for an opportunity. And the opportunity came on the night of 23 July, at about 11.30 pm, when the so-called terrorists of the North, carrying on an armed struggle for a separate state of Eelam for the Tamils, ambushed and killed thirteen soldiers who were all Sinhalese (the Sri Lankan army is almost entirely Sinhalese). This sparked the fuse.

 

The army had shot and killed two 'terrorists' in the North a week earlier. The Tigers, as the Tamil militant youth call themselves, had been planning a retaliation. They had lured the army out several times on false information. Then, on 23 July 'information' about the whereabouts of some 'terrorists' was fed to the army. Ignoring an order not to go on night patrol, armed soldiers went out in two vehicles. They were easily ambushed. A detonator, which had recently been stolen from the Kankesanturai cement factory, was used to blow up the vehicles. When the soldiers got out, they were shot down from all sides. Thirteen died on the spot, two were wounded.

 

Sunday

Colombo received the news on Sunday, the 24th. By evening, crowds had gathered at Colombo's main cemetery where, apparently, the government had made an attempt to bury the bodies. Nobody knows why the government decided on this step, instead of returning the bodies to the areas from which the soldiers came. It seems to have had some confused idea of reaping political capital by rousing hatred among the Sinhalese against the 'terrorists'. In any event, a crowd of thousands surrounded the President's house at Ward Place (not his official residence) and demanded the bodies. The crowd was tear-gassed. But the government retreated. That night, a section of this crowd started the communal violence by setting fire to Tamil houses at the Borella end of Rosmead Place (near the cemetery).                                                                    50

 

By seven in the evening, I received the news of the attack on the army. All Tamils started phoning each other – expecting the worst, but hoping for the best: At about 1 o'clock, on the morning of Monday, the 25th, I was woken by a telephone call from a Sinhalese friend telling me that Tamil houses in Rosmead Place were burning. It was the start of a nightmare that was to last for days. (Excerpt)

 

Tamil patients in hospitals were attacked and killed

 

But the Prime Minister’s words convey nothing like the scale of the violence which occurred on the 25th , the 26th, and over the rest of that week. Tamil shops, houses and business premises were systematically fired. In Colombo at least 500 cars—some with drivers and passengers inside—were burnt. Tamil-owned buses, running between Colombo and Jaffna were burnt. Tamil patients in hospitals were attacked and killed – some had their throats cut as they lay in their beds. Tamil doctors had their dispensaries and houses burnt and destroyed. In Welikade jail Tamil detainees were brutally and cold-bloodedly murdered, over two separate days. Thirty-five were killed on the 25th, another seventeen on the 27th in a ‘prison riot’, allegedly by Sinhalese prisons who somehow got out of their cells, somehow got weapons, and somehow could not be restrained by their (armed) prison guards. (In Jaffna jail, about the same time guards were able to shoot down and kill four Tamil prisoners allegedly attempting to escape.) Altogether, fifty-three Tamil prisoners died in Welikade, their bodies smashed and mutilated.

-- “Sri Lanka: the story of the holocaust.” N. Shanmugathasan. Race & Class, XXVI, 1 (1984). pp.65-66.

 

Fifty yards from the Indian High Commission,

 

Sri Lanka’s capital city for most of the last fortnight looked like it had been taken by a conquering army. Street after street lay empty to the gaze, although the dawn-to-dusk curfew had been lifted, and small, watchful groups of Sinhalese dotted the side-walks, providing flesh and blood counterpoints to the hundreds of burnt-out shops and factories and homes that lined the once bustling markets and roads. The arson was professional, charred shells fallen in on themselves, with blackened signboards announcing Tamil ownership hanging askew, here and there a liquor shop with hundreds of broken bottles littering the floor, or a jewellery mart with showcases battered in and the gold and the gems carefully removed before the torching. Fifty yards from the Indian High Commission, right next door to the police headquarters, stood a huge block, blackened and devastated. ‘The shops in this block had heavy grille doors,’ recalled an eye-witness, ‘so an army truck was used as a battering ram to break through them, and then the soldiers sprang in with Sinhala battle cries to claim the lion’s share of the loot.’

-- an article published in India Today. Reproduced in “Sri Lanka: the story of the holocaust.” N. Shanmugathasan. Race & Class, XXVI, 1 (1984). p.66.

 

Troops and police (almost exclusively Sinhalese) either joined the rioters

 

The violence was vicious and bloody. But what distinguished it from many other communal Asian riots was the way that the mob singled out specific business premises. In street after street in Colombo groups of rioters hit only at factories (as well as homes) owned by Tamils. Their careful selectivity is apparent now. In each street individual business premises were burned down, while others alongside stood unscathed. Troops and police (almost exclusively Sinhalese) either joined the rioters or stood idly by. President Jayewardene failed either intentionally or because he lost control to assert his authority quickly enough to stem the damage.

-- from Financial Times, 12 August 1983. (reproduced in “Sri Lanka: the story of the holocaust.” N. Shanmugathasan. Race & Class, XXVI, 1 (1984). pp.66-67.)

 

 

Psychological impact of the Riots:

 

In a sense, it was the mental agony and the trauma, the scars in the minds of people, that were worse. Imagine finding yourself overnight without a roof over your head, all your life’s possessions and saving s gone up in flames, your wife’s thali-koddi and other jewellery stolen, yourself standing with only the clothes you wear and also realising that many of your relations and friends are in the same plight and that, in many cases, the sources of employment had disappeared?

 

Can there be anything more demoralising? It is a terrible feeling. It was a feeling that thousands of Tamils underwent during that terrible week in July. The Tamils could not understand how the Sinhalese people, among whom they had lived reasonably peacefully all these years, could have nurtured such venom and hatred against them. The greatest loss is that the Tamils have lost confidence in the Sinhalese. They can no longer feel secure in the South.

-- “Sri Lanka: the story of the holocaust.” N. Shanmugathasan. Race & Class, XXVI, 1 (1984). pp.67-68.

 

 

 

51

 

 

 

Why were the poor plantation workers of Indian Tamil origin attacked?

 

Some argue that the killing of the thirteen Sinhala soldiers in Jaffna was the cause. This is simply to beg the question. That was not the cause. … When men, Sinhala or Tamil, put on a uniform and acquire the licence to kill, they, themselves, stand the risk of being killed. This has nothing to do with their race. The armed forces are the main form of the state machinery which the government maintains to repress both the Sinhalese and Tamil people. The same Sinhala soldier who is today killing a Tamil in the North and getting shot at in return, will, tomorrow, in the South, gun down a Sinhalese when ordered to as, indeed, was the case in 1971. … Some others argue that the violence against the Tamils was a natural reaction to the cry for a separate state of Eelam. If that was so, why were the poor plantation workers of Indian Tamil origin attacked? They or their leaders never asked for a separate state. … So much for the easy rationalisations. When one sifts the evidence, two factors become very clear. Firstly, it is obvious that, in every area, the attacks were carried out with absolute precision: the attackers were supplied, in advance, with exact details and addresses of all Tamil premises. The systematic nature of the savagery was commented upon widely by foreign eye-witness reporters. Secondly, in every area, eye witnesses identified the looters and arsonists and murderers as government supporters. The fact that the armed forces actively participated in this holocaust, or at best remained inactive, can only be explained by the fact that they were sure of protection.

-- “Sri Lanka: the story of the holocaust.” N. Shanmugathasan. Race & Class, XXVI, 1 (1984). pp.69-70

 

Mathew had a modus operandi

 

Lest anyone not take seriously the idea of conquering Tamil lands for the Sinhalese, let it be pointed out that Mathew had a modus operandi for this. He has located what he alleges were former Buddhist places of worship in the North and East which he claims have now been converted into Hindu shrines and their names changed. He wants to reclaim these places and bring them back to their original position as Buddhist shrines and monasteries. The plan is exceedingly simple. It is to use the Building Materials Corporation and other Corporations under his Ministry (Industries) to repair or build anew these so-called Buddhist shrines, install a Buddhist priest and then plant a colony of 100 or 200 Sinhalese as dayakas to support the priest and the monastery. This programme of work has apparently advanced a long way. Even after the disturbances, Minister Cyril Mathew canvassed these views openly at a recent meeting held at Galle at the opening of the Duttugemunu Vihara. This speech was reported in the Tamil daily, Virakesari on the 29th September, 1983. In the course of his speech, Mathew called upon Sinhalese Buddhists to volunteer to go and live near these allegedly former viharas in the North and Eastern provinces. He estimated the number of such viharas at 276.

 

-- “Sri Lanka: the story of the holocaust.” N. Shanmugathasan. Race & Class, XXVI, 1 (1984). p.73

http://www.sangam.org/2008/08/Black_July_Quotes.php?uid=3045

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Tamil Centre for Human Rights - TCHR

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