The Tamil people must lead their struggle

The Tamil people should not keep quiet anymore. Their mass organisations and civil groups should realise their duties and the fact that the unfolding scenario has no room for individual issues. It is futile for the Tamil political leadership, positioning itself against the aspirations of the people, to again and again get trapped in the old ways of polity. The next stage should be a mass struggle.

‘A child is summarily executed’

Writing in the Independent, Sri Lanka’s Killing Fields Director Callum Macrae has revealed some of the new evidence of summary executions that they have uncovered whilst making their follow up documentary, “ War Crimes Unpunished”. Extracts have been reproduced below. See the full piece here . For more information on the upcoming documentary “ Sri Lanka’s Killing Fields: War Crimes Unpunished ”, see here . It will be broadcast on Channel 4 this Wednesday the 14th of March at 10.55pm. “A 12-year-old boy lies on the ground. He is stripped to the waist and has five neat bullet holes in his chest. His name is Balachandran Prabakaran and he is the son of the LTTE leader, Velupillai Prabhakaran. He has been executed in cold blood. Beside him lie the bodies of five men, believed to be his bodyguards. There are strips of cloth on the ground indicating that they were tied and blindfolded before they were shot – further evidence suggesting that the Sri Lankan government forces had a systematic policy of executing many surrendering or captured LTTE fighters and leading figures, even if they were children. ” “In one incident, legally significant because it is well documented, two international UN workers leading the last UN overland food convoy became trapped near a temporary hospital in a village primary school in Uddiyakattu, in the first of the government's No Fire Zones.” “With the help of other civilians they began to dig bunkers to provide some protection from incoming shellfire. As was standard practice, one of the UN workers, an Australian called Peter Mackay, took precise GPS co-ordinates of the site, and these were supplied to the government. But if that had any effect, it was certainly not the desired one. Over the next couple of days the camp was subjected to a massive, sustained barrage of incoming shellfire, much of it falling directly on or near to the UN bunker. Dozens were killed – and many more horrifically injured. It was all photographed by the UN workers .” “In a sense, it was just one relatively small incident in the ongoing carnage of the war, but it is potentially significant because it provides specific evidence linking the Sri Lankan government's chain of command to knowledge of targeted attacks on civilians – attacks that appear to constitute war crimes .”

'India should assert leadership at UNHRC'

Writing in the Indian Express, Maja Daruwala, director of the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative, has called on India to assert leadership at the UN Human Rights Council and call for accountability in Sri Lanka. Extracts have been reproduced below. See the full piece here . " The time has come for India to be bolder and more confident on human rights at the international level. Its growing stature in international affairs demands this leadership position. The current session of the UN Human Rights Council presents India with an excellent opportunity to move towards a foreign policy that truly befits the world’s largest democracy. It should seize the opportunity and vote in favour of accountability in Sri Lanka." " Unfortunately, the proposed resolution does not go far enough. It will not immediately call for direly needed international investigations — a bitter disappointment. In this context, the proposed resolution must not preclude future UNHRC efforts that demand justice, accountability and international investigations in Sri Lanka. The resolution should be voted on only as a first step in the right direction, and not as a final step to water down scrutiny or as a tactic to delay urgently needed justice in Sri Lanka. " "From India’s point of view, the resolution is saying nothing that India has not ostensibly been asking of Sri Lanka both publicly and privately — real accountability and soon. A stable, well-governed neighbour is in India’s interest as a regional power. Stability requires that alienated populations experience justice for the past and in the future. Denials, diplomatic spin and cosmetic efforts that paper over past misdeeds cannot achieve this. Today, only a negative peace exists in Sri Lanka. "

If Sri Lanka really could be good, then why has it been so bad?

As Sri Lanka struggles to fend off a critical resolution at the UN Human Rights Commission, international pressure on Sri Lanka is coalescing on three key demands. International actors are demanding that Sri Lanka implements reforms to usher in good governance, credibly investigates and prosecutes those responsible for war crimes and crimes against humanity and finally meets Tamil demands for meaningful self government. While the substance of these demands is entirely reasonable and plausible, the presumption that Sri Lanka might somehow meet these expectations is not. For if Sri Lanka really was capable of such enlightened behaviour then why has its post independence history been one of relentlessly escalating ethnic antagonism and brutality, culminating in the bloodbath of May 2009? What explains the ongoing militarised repression of the Tamil speaking regions? The very need for such overt international insistence on measures that are patently necessary reveals precisely why all such pressure is futile.

Revisiting Sri Lanka's bloody war

Writing in the New York Times , the panel of experts, appointed by the UN Secretary General, Ban Ki Moon to examine the final stages of the armed conflict in Sri Lanka - Marzuki Darusman, the former attorney-general of Indonesia, Steven Ratner, a professor of law at the University of Michigan, and Yasmin Sooka, the executive director of the Foundation for Human Rights in South Africa - urged the 19th session of the UN Human Rights Council to ensure that "Sri Lanka fulfills its responsibilities to all its people and to the rest of the world". See here for original article in the New York Times...

'Our duty to Sri Lanka, and human rights'

Writing in the Guardian, Archbishop Desmond Tutu and former Irish President Mary Robinson, members of The Elders, global leaders working for peace and human rights, called on the UN Human Rights Council to " support a resolution that seeks accountability for the terrible violations of international law ". See their full piece here. Extracts reproduced below: “ This week the UN Human Rights Council has an opportunity and a duty to help Sri Lanka advance its own efforts on accountability and reconciliation. Both are essential if a lasting peace is to be achieved. In doing so, the council will not only be serving Sri Lanka, but those worldwide who believe there are universal rights and international legal obligations we all share. ” “In the absence of a credible and independent investigation into what happened in Sri Lanka, the Human Rights Council has an obligation to uphold human rights law and international humanitarian law during its upcoming 2012 sessions.,” “Against this background, and continuing reports of human rights violations by the authorities, we urge the council to support a resolution that seeks accountability for the terrible violations of international law that have taken place, and establishes mechanisms to monitor progress on the steps the government is taking on accountability. If there is insufficient progress by the government in establishing a credible accountability process in the near future, we urge council members to support the establishment of an independent investigation. ”

India tries to charm its neighbours

Extracts from The Economist article on India's strategy in the region and China's role: Memories in Sri Lanka of India’s troubled role in the long and bitter civil war appear to be fading. Meanwhile, India, officially, does not worry about signs of its neighbour’s dalliance with China. That is despite the news last month that Chinese investors took 85% control of the project extending Colombo’s main commercial port, which handles goods traded almost entirely with India. “Sri Lanka is sensitive to the security concerns of India,” says the foreign minister, reassured. But regardless, Mr Krishna...

Virginia University student documents internment testimonies

After having visited Sri Lanka in January 2012, as part of a group of students from the University of Virginia’s School of Law , Calleigh McRaith has written a brief summary of testimonies that he gathered from IDPs and others interned by Sri Lanka. Focusing on IDP settlements, former LTTE members and those trapped in Sri Lanka’s prison system, McRaith concludes, “The program of rehabilitation and on-going detention without charge of surrenderees continues to breed distrust among Tamil populations in the North , and many are still struggling to rebuild their lives after they were severely disrupted by the IDP internment.” Extracts have been reproduced below. See the full piece here . "Upon arriving in the camp she and the other IDPs were placed under close surveillance while the Army questioned people and attempted to screen out LTTE members – she was subjected to a strip search and was forced to go to the bathroom in front of the Army men, as they would not allow the IDPs to leave the presence of the guards even for these private acts . She began crying while telling this part of her story, saying that she felt shame because of this degrading treatment. She said that no matter what the government did now to try to win her trust, she could not give it because of how she was treated in Menik Farm ." " Petty theft and rape of young girls, by both the Army and camp residents, remain problems even now for those still living in Menik Farm, and the current residents expressed concern that life in the camps was destroying their culture and morality. Furthermore, it was reported that when s ome members of Menik Farm met with workers from an Indian NGO to discuss the camp conditions, the drinking water in the camp was shut off for five days afterwards – with the camp authorities explicitly saying that the water was withheld as punishment for talking to the NGO. " "This internment, particularly the harsh conditions and extreme surveillance, was not justified as necessary to national security , and IDPs who were detained deserve some sort of remedy for this violation of their rights. The government should also be sharply criticized for this policy, and further investigation should be conducted into the IDPs claims that the internment was a cover for maintaining control over the Tamil population. Furthermore, some IDPs are still living in Menik Farm, and their concerns about rape in the camps and the government-created obstacles to resettlement on their lands should be addressed." " The bright vision painted by the government was a far cry from the reports I heard from people who had gone through rehabilitation. "

Britain pushes initiative to gather evidence of Syrian crimes

“On top of this, we must end any illusion the regime has that it can act with impunity in Syria. There is no doubt that mass murder is being committed. Some 6,000 people have already been sacrificed to the regime's brutal determination to cling to power. Those carrying out these crimes may well think that they will get away with it. However that is what Ratko Mladic and Radovan Karadzic, the architects of the blood-soaked siege of Sarajevo, probably thought; or Slobodan Milosevic when he presided over ethnic cleansing in Kosovo and Bosnia; or Charles Taylor when he committed his crimes in...

'Time for a reality check on the Sri Lankan civil war'

In his blog in The Independent, journalist Emmanuel Stoakes calls for an independent inquiry into alleged war crimes. See below for extracts. "It has been around a thousand days since the conclusion of the war. In that time the response of the government to allegations of abuses, up to and including the LLRC report has been unconvincing, redolent of political self-service rather than an authentic attempt at truth and reconciliation. "Even some of the most ardent patriots who instinctively rally to Rajapaksa must be growing weary of reflexive cries of “lies and propaganda!” every time new...

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