'War crimes in Sri Lanka'

Former BBC foreign correspondent based in Sri Lanka and Iran, Frances Harrison, writes in the Dawn newspaper, Friday. See here for original article. The article has been reproduced in full below: THERE are signs that the international community is gearing up for action to hold Sri Lanka accountable for alleged war crimes committed by its forces at the end of the brutal civil war against the Tamil Tiger rebels in 2009. A resolution is being prepared for next month’s session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva and Pakistan, where the Sri Lankan president begins a three-day visit today,...

'My brothers' keepers'

In its latest edition, The Economist writes about the Rajapakse clan's stranglehold on Sri Lanka. See below for extracts. 'The past months have brought strikes, riots and protests by students, railwaymen, prisoners and public workers. The opposition Tamil National Alliance swept local elections in the north, leaving the president’s party in the dust. Ranil Wickremasinghe, the main Sinhalese opposition leader, no ball of energy himself, claims to see wide “protests and agitation against unfulfilled promises”.' 'Hushed café talk about a “Colombo spring” overstates things, but Mr Rajapaksa may...

Time to put principles into action at UN Human Rights Council

Louise Arbour, President and CEO of the International Crisis Group and former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, writes a piece entitled “Tamils await their peace dividend” , for the Globe and Mail. Extracts have been reproduced below. See the full piece here . “For Tamils, the end of Sri Lanka’s civil war has brought no peace dividend; for Tamil women, peace has brought with it a continuation – and in some cases an intensification – of violence and insecurity.” “There is, however, an opportunity to address Sri Lanka’s entrenched culture of denial and impunity – including for crimes...

Sri Lanka’s killing fields are ‘beyond the boundary’

Ahead of the English Cricket team’s planned tour of Sri Lanka in March, former Member of European Parliament Robert Evans has written in the Tribune Magazine, calling on the tour to be cancelled and for a full independent international investigation into war crimes. See the full piece here . Extracts have been reproduced below. "The reality is somewhat different and in truth, there is probably no worse or more dangerous time for an England team to travel to this troubled and divided nation. " "The case to cancel the tour is augmented in the light of Jon Snow’s ‘Sri Lanka’s Killing Fields’ " "Despite being faced with the ‘evidence’ in this video, authenticated by the UN, the Sri Lankan Government has dismissed the tapes as fabricated and refuses to initiate a proper investigation or take any action against the accused soldiers. " "But neither the international community nor the International Cricket Council should accept this position... An England cricket team should not tour a country where the Government stands accused of such appalling atrocities and refuses to investigate them. " "Apologists for apartheid claimed then that politics and sport were completely separate, and that the internal politics of South Africa were nothing to do with cricket. Nelson Mandela being imprisoned for 27 years because for the colour of his skin was not for some, a reason to isolate South Africa from international cricket. " "Fast forward forty years and there are few people who will argue that Mike Gatting, Graham Gooch and their rebel tours helped the cause. Likewise those who condone apartheid today are silent, dangerous and very few in number. " "In the light of this international condemnation, it would be naive and provocative at the very least, for Andrew Strauss or anyone else to lead an England team to play tests in Colombo and Galle. With perhaps as many as six of the possible England team being South African born, the politics and sport arguments will be familiar to them. "

American power: softer and smarter

“Are the “declinists” on the United States, focused on hard power and America’s falling share of global output, missing something?” “U.S.-based global corporations added 683,000 workers in China during the 1999-2009 decade, a 172 percent increase, and 392,000 workers in India, a 542 percent increase. In all they added 1.5 million workers to payrolls in the Asia and Pacific region, while cutting 864,600 workers at home, according to figures from the Commerce Department.” “ American isolationism has become an oxymoron. As these figures show, it’s a non-option.” “On one level this shift poses...

'A Fairy Story For The Galle Literary Festival By Popular Demand'

Critically acclaimed Sri Lankan born novelist Roma Tearne has released a satirical short story ahead of the Galle Literary Festival, which she, along with Reporters Without Borders , Noam Chomsky and Arundhati Roy amongst others, called to boycott last year. Extracts from her piece have been reproduced below. “The festival was in full swing. All the great writers from around the world were present, topping up their tan by the pool. Sorry I mean all the great white writers. The UK-returned natives were keen to stay out of the sun. Listen, you must understand, on this island paradise, the darker you were the harder it was to find a spouse and the more likely you were to be killed. It’s true.” “The Festival sponsors strutted about and got lots of exposure. The organisers played at blind-man’s bluff. And the tan-toppers drank a lot. I’m telling you, all was as it should be.” “One or two people were a bit worried about security. ‘Did you hear a Russian girl was raped?’ ‘No, no,’ SS told them, waggling his head. ‘That didn’t really happen! It was a play put on for the purpose of the Festival. It wasn’t the real thing!’ ‘What about that Red Cross guy who was killed?’ ‘That was in the play, too. Remember your Hamlet? The play’s the thing and all that…’ ‘Oh okay,’ said the foreigners and off they went for a swim thinking, gosh, these people are incredibly friendly. They just smile and smile…. wasn’t there something like that in Hamlet, too?”

‘Sri Lanka's woeful January way-points’ - CPJ

“In 2011, Sri Lanka ranked fourth worst in the world in terms of allowing murders of journalists to go unpunished, according to our global Impunity Index. As we noted in our report, " President Mahinda Rajapaksa has presided over a dark era of targeted media killings and complete law-enforcement failure in addressing the crimes. All nine journalist murders in the past decade have gone unsolved, leaving persistent questions as to whether authorities have been complicit in some of the crimes. " “The result of all this mayhem is that Sri Lanka's independent media has been largely restrained,...

Genocide continues unabated

Writing in The Platform , Mario Arulthas from the TYO UK (Tamil Youth Organisation UK) argues that the end of the armed conflict has not brought peace, but instead as the ruling regime "attempts to consolidate the Sinhala-Buddhist fascism that has plagued the island for decades", the genocide of Tamils "continues unabated". See here for article - 'Suffering of Tamils continues unabated' in full. Extracts reproduced below: Two and a half years have passed since the armed conflict between the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam and the Government of Sri Lanka ended, but Tamils have seen neither...

International investigation is the 'right policy for US' – House of Representatives member

An independent international investigation is the “right policy for the US”, said New York’s member in the US House of Representatives Michael Grimm, writing in Capitol Hill’s Roll Call newspaper. A former FBI agent and US Marine, Grimm commented that President Mahinda Rajapakse had “callously squandered” chances for peace and instead had worsened tensions on the island. “A prime and alarming example of this is the attempts by Rajapaksa's regime to whitewash horrible actions by the government in the final stages of Sri Lanka's civil war, where 10,000 to 40,000 ethnic Tamils were slaughtered...

‘The image has become a powerful weapon’

‘Footage shows photographs of sexually abused women upon whom the military exercise a further act of domination with the camera. In one film taken on a smartphone soldiers are recorded throwing the bodies of dead females into a truck, rating their bodies as they fling them into a pile. This objectification and absolute disrespect for the dead is emphasised once again by the presence of the lens, which is said to be recording the acts as ‘trophy footage’. The filming of brutal executions by the perpetrators is another decisively symbolic act of power. However, like all weapons, these images...

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