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US may launch Sri Lanka war crimes investigation 25 March 2013 Last updated at 13:29 ET Help The US has warned that it may be forced to investigate alleged war crimes if the Sri Lankan government does not conduct its own "independent and credible" inquiry. The Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs, Robert Blake, said it was up to the Sri Lankan government to prove that it was genuine in investigating allegations of war crimes during the last phase of the conflict with the separatist group the Tamil Tigers http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-21930556

The torture of Tamil political prisoners is increasingly rife in Sri Lanka with some detainees dying in custody after suffering prolonged abuse, a new investigation claims. The findings will intensify pressure on Britain to withdraw from a controversial summit to be held in Sri Lanka later this year. Tens of thousands of ethnic Tamils have been held without trial since 2009, when Sri Lanka's military finally crushed Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) rebels in a decades-long conflict for control of the island's northern Jaffna peninsula. Since then, according to a new report (pdf) by the London-based Sri Lanka Campaign for Peace and Justice, the government …

India on Monday asked its envoy in Geneva to return for consultations on the US resolution on Sri Lanka, the IANS reported. Dilip Sinha, ambassador and permanent representative of India to the UN in Geneva, will be in New Delhi on Tuesday to brief the government on the resolution, external affairs ministry spokesperson Syed Akbaruddin said. The issue has gained urgency with political parties and activists in Tamil Nadu urging the government to back the resolution — like last year — and even amend it to denounce Colombo for the "genocide" of Tamils. The resolution is expected to come up for voting at the 47-member UNHRC session in Geneva March 21. The forei…

Three IT professionals from Tamil Nadu are camping in New Delhi, trying to knock on the corridors of power to impress upon the government to stop playing second fiddle on the Sri Lankan Tamils issue and vote in favour of the US-sponsored United Nations Human Rights Council resolution. Sheela Bhatt reports "Do you know thousands of students from over 200 Tamil educational institutions are protesting against Sri Lanka's ill-treatment of ethnic Tamils since the last many weeks?" "Do you know that thousands of students are on a token fast today (Thursday) across Tamil Nadu to put pressure on the UPA government in New Delhi to vote in favour of the US-sponsored United…

Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper will not attend the Commonwealth summit in Colombo later this year unless Colombo shows improvement on issues like human rights, judicial independence and more autonomy for the Tamils, the country's envoy to the grouping has said. Senator Hugh Segal, Canada's special envoy for Commonwealth renewal said Canada was not encouraging anybody not to participate in the Commonwealth Heads of Government in Colombo from November 15. "Our own Prime Minister has said that he does not intend to be in Colombo because he has not seen sufficient evidence of the Government producing results on issues like human rights, rule of law, Judicial i…

London-based Global Tamil Forum (GTF) has released a shocking video, from which this photograph has been extracted, to show that many children had been captured and shot dead towards the end of the Eelam war by the Sri Lankan troops. “They killed in cold blood not just LTTE chief Prabhakaran’s 12-year-old son Balachandran but several kids in similar fashion. This video nails the Sri Lankan government for serious war crimes”, GTF spokesman Suren Surendiran told Deccan Chronicle. He said the group in the picture included a little boy and a youth without a hand, all of them with their hands tied at the back. They were all later shot dead as seen in the video being re…

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: March 13, 2013 CONTACT: Adam Sharon Adam.Sharon@mail.house.gov 202.226.8467 Eliot Engel Calls for an Independent International Investigation into Allegations of War Crimes in Sri Lanka Washington, D.C. - U.S. Rep. Eliot Engel (D-NY), the top Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, wrote Secretary Kerry on Tuesday expressing serious concern regarding the deterioration of democracy and the lack of progress on reconciliation and accountability in Sri Lanka. Citing indications that the Government of Sri Lanka appears unwilling to implement the recommendations of Sri Lanka’s own Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission, Ranking M…

Claims Of A Meteorite's Ancient Aquatic Fossils Spark Debate Enlarge image i Images show what researchers say could be a "hystrichosphere," a fossilized dinoflagellate cyst. Journal of Cosmology Images show what researchers say could be a "hystrichosphere," a fossilized dinoflagellate cyst. Journal of Cosmology A meteorite that lit the sky over Sri Lanka with a yellow and green flame when it fell to earth on Dec. 29, 2012, contains "fossilized biological structures," according to researchers in Britain, Sri Lanka, and the United States. Elaborating on claims they first made in January, the scientists are also seeking to answe…

Publishing a book about a highly charged ethnic conflict in which tens of thousands have died is no path to a peaceful life. You only need to look at the racial abuse and filthy language in the comments sections of online sites frequented by Sri Lankans to see how intense the emotions still are. Like anyone who writes on Sri Lanka I’ve had my share of abuse from both sides. I’ve been told I am covered in the blood of the babies who perished in the killing fields, that I’ve been making money out of the dead, and am a terrorist or “white Tiger” not to mention, a hysterical liar. But what the public doesn’t see are the private messages from readers around the world. Ev…

India seeks to back non-intrusive resolution against Lanka at UN rights Council DMK workers laid siege to the Sri Lankan Deputy High Commissioner's office in Chennai on Match 5, 2013 demanding United Nations Human Rights Council probe into alleged war crimes in Sri Lanka. (TOI photo by C Suresh Kumar) RELATED DMK seeks referendum in north, east Lanka NEW DELHI: The US circulated a draft resolution in Geneva against Sri Lanka on Thursday, which, if supported by India, could upend many of the fundamental "no-go" areas of Indian foreign policy and complicate New Delhi's efforts to honour the sentiments of Tamil MPs while maintaining it…

Left, DMK demand India vote against Sri Lanka at UN rights meeting Communist Party of India (CPI) leader D Raja on Thursday said India should demand an impartial and international inquiry on the war crimes committed by Sri Lankan military on Tamils as well as should vote against the island nation in the current meeting of UN Human Rights Council. Raja said the assurances by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh or external affairs minister Salman Khurshid has no meaning unless India takes a pro-active role in the current session of the UN Human Rights Council meeting at Geneva. "And India should see whatever resolution brought by US or …

In May 2009, as the civil war was drawing to a close, the Sri Lankan executed influential Tamil leaders even though they had already surrendered. Frances Harrison spoke to two Tamil fighters who witnessed the incident and revealed the atrocity to the world. The stocky Tamil man twisted himself nervously inside his thin black anorak, ill suited to one of the iciest days of winter, as he explained how he turned informer, betraying the very man he was supposed to protect, in order to save his own life. We endured the bone-chilling cold sitting outdoors on a deserted verandah sipping coffee in a café in Victoria Station, interrupted occasionally by the peremptory platform …

The Tamils in Sri Lanka: From Tigers Into Lambs Imagine a global nation of people stretched into a diaspora that numbers perhaps 80 million people, more than five times the global Jewish population. Have you heard of the Tamils? They are in South India, Malaysia, Canada, Sri Lanka and around the world. Mostly Hindu, there is a substantial Christian and Muslim population. You're probably familiar with the work of A.R. Rahman from Slumdog Millionaire and M.I.A. from "Paper Planes." You've likely been entranced by the work of film director M. Night Shyamalan and have laughed at the comic timing of Aziz Ansari on Parks and Recreation. You may not be aware of the groun…

GENEVA/NEW DELHI – The Sri Lankan military committed numerous war crimes during the final months of the country’s 26-year-long civil war, according to a documentary aired for the first time Friday, amid vigorous protests from Colombo. However, in an interview published Saturday, President Mahinda Rajapaksa firmly denied the allegations made in the documentary and also denied that government troops executed the 12-year-old son of separatist chief Velupillai Prabhakaran in 2009. Rajapaksa told India’s Hindu newspaper in the interview: “Had it happened, I would have known (it). It is obvious that if somebody (from the armed forces) had done that, I must take responsibi…

A documentary purporting to show the execution of civilians and other war crimes committed by the Sri Lankan army had its first public screening on Friday but was swiftly rejected by the government as part of an "orchestrated campaign" against it. The documentary "No Fire Zone: The Killing Fields of Sri Lanka" is the third by British journalist and director Callum Macrae about the final stages of the nearly 30-year civil war. "We see it as a film of record, but also a call to action," Macrae told a news briefing. "All of it is genuine. It is evidence of war crimes and I have to warn you it is pretty horrific." Tens of thousands of civilians were killed in 2009…

President Must Disown Tamil Paramilitary Groups | by Rajasingham Jayadevan ( March 1, 2013, London, Sri Lanka Guardian) My recent visit to Jaffna stretched once again (like in January 2012) a trip to the north-west coastal islands due to my visiting relatives wanting to worship at the Shree Nagapooshani Amman temple in the Islet of Nainativu. A contingent of fifteen relatives went to the islet. Paramilitary Leader Minister Douglas Devananda It was a very bumpy drive on the pothole and patchwork road. The drive did not give any impression that there is any major roadwork plan for the narrow lagoon road. The intermittent pothole patchwork undertaken …

“There were massive war crimes in the last phase which were probably the biggest bloodshed of the twenty first century” said Erik Solheim. He made above remark at the Global Tamil Forum conference yesterday. Erik Solheim was one of the key international speakers who participated at the Global Tamil Forum (GTF) third anniversary celebrations held at the Committee Room 14, Houses of Parliament in the UK yesterday. Senior Minister of State at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and former Conservative Party Chairman Baroness Warsi however referring to de-mining process, claimed progress had been made and international community could debate Sri Lanka’s achievement in…

Either we are too naïve or extremely foolish. While the forces against Sri Lanka had been getting ready to degrade Sri Lanka for months, a team leader to counter the allegations on behalf of the country was appointed just 72 hours before the United Nations Human Rights Council sessions in Geneva, Switzerland. It has been reported in the media that the decision to appoint President Rajapaksa’s Human Rights envoy Mahinda Samarasinghe to present Sri Lanka’s case in Geneva was a sudden decision. Samarasinghe who had been in the forefront in the previous Human Rights Council sessions was kept in the dark this time about the preparations for Council sessions—if there’s an…

Sri Lanka falling short of implementing the recommendations of its own Reconciliation Commission - ESTHER BRIMMER, Assistant Secretary of State for International Organizations of the United States ESTHER BRIMMER, Assistant Secretary of State for International Organizations of the United States, said that the Council had to work to attain universality, dialogue, principles, and truth. In today’s networked world hate, insulting and intolerant speech could be marginalized and defeated only by encouraging positive and respectful expression. The pursuit of an honest, open dialogue among Member States was one of the themes which the United States had pledged to pursue and wou…

“Accountability for alleged crimes committed by GSL troops and officials during the war is the most difficult issue on our bilateral agenda. (NOTE: Both the State Department Report to Congress on Incidents during the Conflict and the widely read report by the University Teachers for Human Rights (Jaffna) also detailed many incidents of alleged crimes perpetrated by the LTTE. Most of the LTTE leadership was killed at the end of the war, leaving few to be held responsible for those crimes. The Government of Sri Lanka (GSL) is holding thousands of mid- and lower-level ex-LTTE combatants for future rehabilitation and/or criminal prosecution. It is unclear whether any such pro…

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY AND RECOMMENDATIONS Government attacks on the judiciary and political dissent have accelerated Sri Lanka’s authoritarian turn and threaten long-term stability and peace. The government’s politically motivated impeachment of the chief justice reveals both its intolerance of dissent and the weakness of the political opposition. By incapacitating the last institutional check on the executive, the government has crossed a threshold into new and dangerous terrain, threatening prospects for the eventual peaceful transfer of power through free and fair elections. Strong international action should begin with Sri Lanka’s immediate referral to the Commonwealth M…

A reputed newspaper in the United Kingdom, “The Independent”, published a disturbing news item and an article on 18 February 2013, under the headlines, ““Handed a snack, and then executed: the last hours of the 12-year-old son of a Tamil Tiger” (Photographs show boy was held before he was killed at close range) and “This is proof, beyond reasonable doubt, of the execution of a child – not a battlefield death”. The author of this news item is Callum Macrae, director of “No Fire Zone: The Killing Fields of Sri Lanka”. The article establishes how 12 year old Balachandran, an innocent child, son of the leader of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam – LTTE was brutally kil…

“A tyrant must put on the appearance of uncommon devotion to religion. Subjects are less apprehensive of illegal treatment from a ruler whom they consider god-fearing and pious. On the other hand, they do less easily move against him, believing that he has the gods on his side” Aristotle If Lord Buddha were here now there is one thing he would do- ban Sinhalabuddhism in Sri Lanka! – With apologies to Mark Twain. As a Sri Lankan and a Buddhist by faith I take it upon myself, as others have not the right, to define the significant differences between the philosophy of Buddhism as per the teachings of Lord Buddha and what is practiced by the majority in this country unde…

While the UN says that after its inaction in Sri Lanka while 40,000 were killed in 2009 it is now studying the “lessons learned,” Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on Friday morning met with Sri Lankan Ambassador Palitha Kohona and four other Permanent Representatives to accept a quite contrary report. Before Inner City Press was asked to leave the conference room, Japan's Permanent Representative Tsuneo Nishida told Ban that “Sri Lanka is an important country” and “this morning we would like to present our report.” Then the meeting was closed; in fact, no topic was ever listed for the meeting. Inner City Press was the only media there. See short YouTube video here…