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ஐ.நா.வின் அறிக்கையும் சர்வதேச ஊடகங்களும்

Featured Replies

ஐ.நா.வின் அறிக்கையும் சர்வதேச ஊடகங்களும்

- இவற்றை முடிந்தளவுக்கு நாம் பரப்புரை செய்தல் வேண்டும்.

- முகநூலில், ட்விட்டரில் (சமூக வலைகளில்) இணைக்கலாம்

- சக நண்பர்கள், உங்கள் நாட்டு அரசியல்வாதிகள், மனிதஉரிமை ஆர்வலர்கள், சக ஊடகவியலாளர்களுக்கு தெரியப்படுத்தாலாம்

1. Report Finds Sri Lanka Attacked Civilians - நியூயார்க் டைம்ஸ்

“The government shelled on a large scale in three consecutive no-fire zones, where it had encouraged the civilian population to concentrate, even after indicating that it would cease the use of heavy weapons,” the report said, according to a leaked copy that was published over the weekend in The Island, a Sri Lankan newspaper. “Most civilian casualties in the final phases of the war were caused by government shelling.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/19/world/asia/19lanka.html?_r=2

2. UN accuses Sri Lanka of slaughtering civilians - சிட்னி மோர்னிங் ஹெரல்ட்

Allegations of war crimes have been laid against one dual Sri Lankan-Australian citizen, a former Australian diplomat, Palitha Kohona.

As secretary of the Sri Lankan Foreign Ministry, Dr Kohona is alleged to have told several several senior Tamil Tiger members, through intermediaries, that they could surrender under a white flag. Three men did surrender, but were later killed, believed summarily executed. Dr Kohona has rejected the allegations. A case has been lodged against him in the International Criminal Court.

http://www.smh.com.au/world/un-accuses-sri-lanka-of-slaughtering-civilians-20110417-1djmw.html

  • தொடங்கியவர்

3. Civilian deaths in Sri Lanka may have been vastly underestimated, U.N. panel says - லொஸ் ஏஞ்சல்ஸ் டைம்ஸ்

The report was hampered by the government's unwillingness to cooperate. Panel members weren't allowed to travel to Sri Lankan sites, interview officials or have access to official documents. Instead, the report's authors relied on photos, video and testimony.

The Sri Lankan government also blocked journalists and international observers from going to the remote northeast during the conflict.

The panel said in its report that the government systematically shelled hospitals on the front lines, including all hospitals in the Vanni region, even though the government was well aware of their location.

"The government also systematically deprived people in the conflict zone of humanitarian aid, in the form of food and medical supplies, particularly surgical supplies, adding to their suffering," it said. "To this end, it purposely underestimated the number of civilians who remained in the conflict zone."

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-fg-sri-lanka-un-20110417,0,5472901.story

4. Leaked UN report accuses Sri Lanka of war crimes - ரேடியோ அவுஸ்திரேலியா

WILSON: And what do you see as ultimately being the potential consequences?

WEISS: I believe that there will be a war crimes process ultimately. I think that the next step is that there will be a more full Goldstone type report. The Sri Lankan government, I imagine will not cooperate. They will pretend to cooperate and there's a very long history of Sri Lankan government commissions of inquiries that lead nowhere and it was one of the very specific points that was made by the panel, which is that the history of the commission of inquiries and judicial investigations conducted within Sri Lanka have come to nothing. So it's important to have international investigations and I believe those international investigations will led to a war crimes process.

http://www.radioaustralia.net.au/connectasia/stories/201104/s3194620.htm

எல்லாவற்றையும் இழந்துவிட்டதாக இருந்த எங்களுக்கு கிடைத்திருக்கும் அரிய சந்தர்ப்பம்

  • தொடங்கியவர்

அவுஸ்திரேலியா தமிழ் காங்கிரஸ் ஐ.நா. அறிக்கை சம்பந்தமாக அறிக்கை

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE on 18 April 2011 - www.australiantamilcongress.com

UN Expert Panel Finds Allegations of War Crimes in Sri Lanka Credible,Calls for Independent International Inquiry The Australian Tamil Congress welcomes the recent report on war crimes in Sri Lanka submitted to the United Nations (UN) Secretary General, Ban Ki Moon by a UN Expert Advisory Panel.

Portions of the yet-to-be published report leaked to Sri Lankan media revealed that the panel found allegations of war crimes in Sri Lanka to be credible and that the UN had failed to act to protect Tamil civilians despite having knowledge of the high civilian casualty rate.

The panel also recommended an international independent inquiry into war crimes in Sri Lanka, stating Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse's own internal inquiry, the 'Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission', was "deeply flawed" and failed to "satisfy key international standards".

Sri Lanka was quick to denounce the findings of the report. Since the panel's establishment in 2010, Sri Lanka has repeatedly refused visas to the Expert Panel, blocking their visit to the island and has to date been defiant against any international independent inquiry into war crimes in the island.

"The international community, including Australia, failed to protect Tamil civilians who were victims of war crimes," said Dr Sam Pari, spokesperson for the Australian Tamil Congress. "It is now time for Australia to step away from the soft diplomacy it practices with Sri Lanka, and impose much needed pressure in the form of trade sanctions and travel bans for government officials, if it continues to obstruct an independent international inquiry into war crimes," she added.

Sri Lankan President, Mahinda Rajapakse will be visiting Perth later this year to participate in the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting.

Media contact:Dr. Sam Pari, Australian Tamil Congress - 0433 428 967

AFP :

Sri Lanka leader urges protests against UN report

Sri Lanka's president has called for mass protests against a UN report which urged a probe into alleged war crimes committed during the fight against Tamil Tiger rebels, his office said Sunday.

President Mahinda Rajapakse said in an address to officials of his Sri Lanka Freedom Party that this year's May Day rally should be turned into a "show of our strength" against international calls for war crimes investigations.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20110417/wl_sthasia_afp/srilankaununrestwarcrimes_20110417074537

----------------------------------------------

UN report finds Sri Lankan troops targeted civilians

SRI Lankan troops deliberately targeted civilians, aid agencies and hospitals in the final days of the bitter civil war with Tamil separatists, a United Nations investigation has found.

It has also called for an independent investigation of ''credible'' allegations of war crimes resulting in the deaths of tens of thousands of civilians - far higher than previous estimates.

http://www.theage.com.au/world/un-report-finds-sri-lankan-troops-targeted-civilians-20110417-1djpr.html

  • கருத்துக்கள உறவுகள்

Rift over Sri Lanka president's call for anti-UN rally.

Trade unions affiliated to Sri Lanka's ruling coalition are divided over the president's call for mass protests against a UN report.

The leaked summary of the report allege that war crimes were committed at the end of the civil war when the government troops crushed the rebels.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-13118400

Edited by nedukkalapoovan

  • தொடங்கியவர்

Chris Stephen: President hits out after UN accuses regime of murders

What happens next is unclear but, significantly, the panel also found that the promises of Sri Lanka to hold its own judicial processes have been broken. This would clear the way for the International Criminal Court to launch its own investigation; but as Sri Lanka is not a member of the ICC, it could do so only if ordered to by the UN Security Council. The council has already ordered investigations by the ICC into Sudan and Libya, and may feel under pressure to follow suit with Sri Lanka to demonstrate impartiality.

Another key aspect of any case is the former commanding general of the units fighting the Tamils, Sarath Fonseka. He led the forces on their victorious campaign but after retiring from the army he ran against the president in elections last year. After losing the poll, he was arrested and jailed by a military court on corruption charges which he claims were fabricated. He has since told journalists that he would be willing to give evidence to an international inquiry against the actions of the president and the president's brother, Gotabhaya, who is the country's defence minister.

http://news.scotsman.com/srilanka/Chris-Stephen-President-hits-out.6753540.jp?articlepage=2

  • தொடங்கியவர்

Inner City Press spoke both with Silva and with Permanent Representative Palitha Kohona on the evening of April 19, arriving uninvited at a reception at Kohona's residence. Despite statements by Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's spokesmen that the report would be released, Kohona argued that it should not be made available to the public.

At Kohona's reception, the Permanent Representative of Egypt -- Maged Abdelaziz, the same one as under Hosni Mubarak -- arrived and chatted with Silva and Kohona, Egypt, as head of the Non Aligned Movement, pressured Ban Ki-moon against any real investigation of war crimes in Sri Lanka.

http://www.innercitypress.com/sripan4lanka041911.html

-- The UN's Haq said, “I won't have a comment on the time frames.”

-- But then Haq spoke about the UN's senior advisers -- no mention of Ban -- getting a response together. Nambiar, it seems clear, has not been recused.

http://www.innercitypress.com/sripan5lanka042011.html

  • தொடங்கியவர்

Sri Lanka: Report Of UN Panel And Rajapakse Under Siege – Analysis - By Dr. Kumar David

“. . (T)he Panel found credible allegations, which if proven, indicate that a wide range of serious violations of international humanitarian law and international human rights law were committed both by the Government of Sri Lanka and the LTTE, some of which would amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity. Indeed, the conduct of the war represented a grave assault on the entire regime of international law designed to protect individual dignity during both war and peace”.

http://www.eurasiareview.com/sri-lanka-report-of-un-panel-and-rajapakse-under-siege-analysis-24042011/

Sri Lanka: The Tamils At Home And The Tamil Diaspora – Analysis - By Dr. Kumar David

One of the most complicated and controversial questions today is the relationship between the Ceylon Tamil people living in the country and the nearly three-quarter of a million strong Ceylon Tamil diaspora. There are two extreme and wholly propagandist theories doing the rounds. The Sri Lanka government’s version is that the Tamils at home are content but the diaspora is populated by serial madmen intent on wrecking havoc. The other extreme is the overseas LTTE-rump which thinks it is the standard bearer of the views of the people at home who are too terrified and oppressed to speak up. Both are false but contain traces of truth; we need to explore the matter.

http://www.eurasiareview.com/sri-lanka-the-tamils-at-home-and-the-tamil-diaspora-analysis-24042011/#comment-126431

  • தொடங்கியவர்

தமிழ் இனத்தின் வேதனைகள், உயிர்ச்சேதங்கள், பொருள் அழிவுகள் வீண்போகாது: இம்மானுவேல்

‘All Sides Must Be Investigated For Real Reconciliation To Begin’

The Sunday Leader’s Faraz Shauketaly spoke to Head of the Global Tamil Forum, Father Emmanuel, asking him to comment on the UN Advisory Panel Report. Excerpts:

http://www.thesundayleader.lk/2011/04/24/%E2%80%98all-sides-must-be-investigated-for-real-reconciliation-to-begin%E2%80%99/

  • தொடங்கியவர்

Panel Finds 'Credible' Sri Lanka War Crimes Allegations - Wall Street Journal

A U.N.-appointed panel has found that allegations of war crimes committed by the Sri Lanka government and the Tamil Tigers during the final battles of their 27-year war are credible and could lead to formal charges if investigated. The panel, in an as-yet-unreleased report, also criticized the U.N. for not revealing casualty figures at the time. Doing so, it said, "would have strengthened the call for protection of civilians."

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704677404576285220618739618.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

UN report: India should not bail out Sri Lankan government, says BJP

India should not bail out the Sri Lankan government from being implicated in the report of the United Nations Secretary General's panel of experts on Sri Lanka for violation of human rights during the final stages of the war in the island nation in 2009, BJP national executive member L. Ganesan said on Monday.

http://www.thehindu.com/news/states/tamil-nadu/article1767227.ece

  • தொடங்கியவர்

'Investigate' international support to Lanka

Governments that provided weapons to the Sri Lankan military during the last stages of the war should also be investigated, says a former UN spokesman. Gordon Weiss told BBC Sinhala services.

UK, USA, Russia, China, India, Pakistan and Israel are some of the countries that provided military assistance to Sri Lanka.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sinhala/news/story/2011/04/110425_weiss_uk_usa.shtml

'India shouldn't have endorsed Lanka's brutal war'

The ruling classes in Sri Lanka are unhappy that a UN panel report has sought a probe into alleged war crimes committed against Tamils in 2009.

An angry President Mahinda Rajapakse has called for mass "May Day protests" against such calls for investigations. Gordon Weiss was the UN spokesman in Sri Lanka in those turbulent times leading to the capture and assassination of Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) chief V Prabhakaran. He left the UN soon, declining the offer of a new assignment in favour of writing about innocent civilians caught in the crossfire between the ruthless Lankan forces and the Tigers. He returned home, to Australia, early last year and started writing the book, The Cage: The Fight for Sri Lanka & the Last Days of the Tigers, months before the United Nations set up a team to review the "military conquest" of the Tigers. He says the panel's report vindicates his earlier statements about the war crimes of 2009. His book, as revelatory as it is incisive, comes at a time when Rajapakse plans to showcase to the world his country's counter-insurgency prowess. In an interview with Ullekh NP, Weiss terms as "naA¯ve" a proposed convention in Colombo in May to share such military experiences with other countries. He also talks about his book, Sri Lankan politics , media manipulation , Prabhakaran, India, China, majoritarianism and the roots of future conflicts in the island nation.

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/opinion/interviews/india-shouldnt-have-endorsed-lankas-brutal-war/articleshow/8086106.cms

  • தொடங்கியவர்

UN Releases Report on Possible War Crimes in Sri Lanka

The U.N. Secretary-General says he will launch an international investigation into allegations of possible war crimes during the final phase of the Sri Lankan government’s war with separatist Tamil Tigers only if the government agrees or U.N. member states call for it. The long-awaited report was released late Monday and says war crimes were likely committed by both sides.

The release was delayed several days as the U.N. awaited a reply from Sri Lanka as to whether it would issue a response to the report alongside the document. The U.N. said that reply has still not come.

http://www.voanews.com/english/news/asia/UN-Releases-Report-on-Possible-War-Crimes-in-Sri-Lanka-120667274.html

US lawmaker urges Sri Lanka to act after report

A senior US lawmaker on Monday urged Sri Lanka to take concrete action on human rights after a UN panel found credible allegations of war crimes in the bloody 2009 finale to the civil war.

Representative Howard Berman, the top member of President Barack Obama's Democratic Party on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said Sri Lanka must "ensure that those involved in violations of human rights are held to account in a transparent and expeditious manner." "I am deeply concerned that the government of Sri Lanka has thus far chosen to protest the report's conclusions rather than accept the recommendations of the UN panel," Berman said in a statement.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5jXkY8bFgh15lVy_3fh2VWRiWP0cQ?docId=CNG.d697e8d3b4ba273459109ad8e2bb5b0b.1231

  • தொடங்கியவர்

U.N. chief says can't order probe into Sri Lanka war

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said he lacks the authority to personally order a probe into the mass killings of civilians in the final months of Sri Lanka's civil war, as a report recommended on Monday.

A human rights group disagreed with Ban's description of his limited powers, saying he has the authority to push ahead.

RIGHTS GROUP: BAN CAN ORDER PROBE

Ban urged Sri Lanka to pursue its own "genuine investigations."

The council has only referred two previous situations to the ICC, the conflict in Sudan's western Darfur region and Libya's violent crackdown against anti-government rebels that sparked an uprising and a Security Council decision to impose a no-fly zone over Libya.

Philippe Bolopion of rights advocacy group Human Rights Watch disagreed with Ban's assessment. Despite Russian and Chinese reluctance, other Security Council members would support a formal U.N. investigation, he said.

"Ban should now follow the panel's advice and set up an independent international mechanism that will investigate alleged violations," he said in a statement. "While we think such intergovernmental support would be highly desirable, we don't consider it necessary to the creation of an investigative mechanism by (Ban)," he said.

Council diplomats said it was highly unlikely that the council would direct Ban to investigate the Sri Lankan war or refer the case to the ICC, though it might encourage the government to pursue a fuller investigation on its own. Veto powers Russia and China, as well as India, are among the council members opposed to formal Security Council involvement in the case of Sri Lanka, diplomats told Reuters. Much of the report was leaked to the Sri Lankan press this month after an advance copy was sent to Sri Lanka's government.

Though the panel blames both sides for deaths, the elimination of the LTTE's leadership by the government and its definitive defeat of the insurgency in May 2009 means that only government forces would be held accountable, should any inquiry arise.The report specifically accuses the government of widespread shelling including targeting field hospitals, denial of humanitarian aid, and rights violations against people inside and outside the conflict zone. The report says there is no authoritative figure for civilian deaths in the final phase of the war, but "multiple sources of information indicate that a range of up to 40,000 civilians deaths cannot be ruled out at this stage."

http://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/news/international/U.N._chief_says_cant_order_probe_into_Sri_Lanka_war.html?cid=30079608

U.N. Chief Powerless to Pursue War Crimes in Sri Lanka

Still, the secretary-general says he has "consistently held the view that Sri Lanka should, first and foremost, assume responsibility for ensuring accountability for the alleged violations." The Sri Lanka government is not likely to give its consent to any investigations of war crimes charges. As a result, it will be left to one of the three intergovernmental bodies to decide on any course of action or act on the recommendations of the panel.

http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=55386

ஐ.நா.வின் இந்த வெளியீடு எமது விடியளுக்கான முதல் படியாக அமைந்துள்ளதையிட்டு அணைவரும் விரைந்து செயற்பட்டு எமது இலக்கை அடைய முன் வறவேண்டும்.

  • தொடங்கியவர்

Editorial: Sri Lankan war crimes

Wars are about death and destruction. So long after they end, its ripples haunt its perpetrators as justice has a way of catching up with those who have trampled on it.

A United Nations report published this week has put the spotlight back on the conflict in Sri Lanka where government troops crushed a Tamil separatist uprising in 2009. The report has said both the Lankan army and Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam guerillas may have committed war crimes during the conflict. As expected, the publication of the report has led to international cries for an independent probe into the war to expose human rights violations and punish the guilty. The LTTE was decimated in the war, and as a non-existent group, has nothing to worry about charges of war crimes. But the government of Sri Lanka is finding itself in a precarious position and if the charges are proven, it will have serious consequences for them.

The UN panel gives a very different version of the final stages of the war than that maintained by the Government of Sri Lanka. The government maintains it pursued a humanitarian rescue operation with a policy of zero civilian casualties. In stark contrast, the panel found credible allegations, which if proven, indicate that a wide range of serious violations of international humanitarian law and international human rights law were committed, some of which would amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity. Indeed, the conduct of the war represented a grave assault on the entire regime of international law designed to protect individual dignity during both war and peace.

The Government systematically shelled hospitals on the frontlines. All hospitals in the Vanni were hit by mortars and artillery and some of them were hit repeatedly despite the fact that their locations were well-known to the Government. At the same time, despite grave danger in the conflict zone, the LTTE refused civilians permission to leave, using them as hostages, at times even using their presence as a human buffer between themselves and the advancing Lankan army.

The Sri Lankan government has a duty to come clean on the war crimes charges leveled against it. For this, the government must agree to an independent international probe. Any probe conducted by the government will not be acceptable to the outside world as it’s a party to the war. The government even distrusts the UN and at one point organised demonstrations against UN staff in Colombo.

The responsibility for establishing the truth now lies with the UN. It has to finish the work it has started and the government has a duty to cooperate.

http://www.thepeninsulaqatar.com/qatar/150472-editorial-sri-lankan-war-crimes.html

Lankan Carnage

A UN panel has indicted the Lankan army for killing tens of thousands of civlians towards the end of the civil war in 2009. It confirms the worst fears about war crimes having being committed. It is unlikely that Colombo will assent to any further international investigation , with President Mahinda Rajapaksa instead having issued a call to turn the upcoming May Day rally into a demonstration against a UN investigation. But the indictment of the panel's report warrants New Delhi taking a more proactive role on the issue. The crimes listed are grisly enough - with most civilian lives having been lost due to indiscriminate shelling by Lankan troops during the months leading to the LTTE's defeat as well as the denial of aid and medical supplies to civilians in the conflict zone. Add the fact that these findings give the lie to Colombo's dismissal of video tapes aired late last year, which showed Lankan troops executing bound and stripped Tamils, as well as Lanka's insistence that it had not violated the 'No-Fire Zone' during the last stages of the war, and the scale of Colombo's tactic of denial while indulging in gross violations is manifest.

The Rajapaksa regime, meanwhile, has been using Chinese and Russian support to ward off discussions on the issue at the UN Security Council while whipping up even more Sinhala-nationalistic passions at home. The latter, in fact, posits the larger problem that the Rajapaksa regime has so far paid mere lip service to the broader need to devolve political power to the minorities as a lasting solution to the conflict as it wallows in its chauvinist, militarist belief that winning the war has ended all issues . Denial of having committed war crimes, leave alone acknowledging the necessity of conducting an investigation , fixing culpability and then possible reparations to the affected Tamil population, is an indication of the lack of any real intent to address the disempowerment of the minorities. That is the message New Delhi must, however diplomatically, deliver to Colombo. International opinion must make it difficult for China to offer support for Lankan reluctance to devolve power.

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/opinion/editorial/lankan-carnage/articleshow/8104875.cms

  • தொடங்கியவர்

Truth and consequences

Nationalistic fury is good for the government, terrible for Sri Lanka

IN RECENT years the default mode for Sri Lankan diplomats has been a posture of affronted national dignity beneath a mask of outraged, sanctimonious innocence. This week, after the publication of a report by a panel of experts for the United Nations on the final stages of Sri Lanka’s 26-year civil war, some were recalled to Colombo for “consultations”. Maybe they are brushing up their indignant-repudiation skills.

The war culminated in May 2009 with the army’s crushing of the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. Its climax was marked by ruthlessness and callous disregard for human life. The panel concluded that “there is a reasonable basis to believe that large-scale violations of international humanitarian and human-rights law were committed by both sides”. Since hardly any of the Tigers’ leaders outlived the war, it is the government of Mahinda Rajapaksa, Sri Lanka’s president, that is in the dock.

It is probably too much to hope the government might adopt a fresh approach to these familiar allegations. There were always at least three ways to tackle them. It could, early on, have argued brazenly that the benefits of ending the war outweighed the cost in human life. The Tigers were as vicious and totalitarian a bunch of thugs as ever adopted terrorism as a national-liberation strategy. Or the government could have insisted that its army’s behaviour was largely honourable, but that some regrettable abuses may have occurred, which would be thoroughly investigated.

Instead, it chose a third path: to lie, and to lie big. It insisted that it pursued a policy of “zero civilian casualties”. Even as its forces shelled the shrinking “no-fire zone” in which the Tigers held some 330,000 civilians as human shields, it either denied it was doing so, or promised to stop and did not. It kept foreign observers out and bullied the local press into silence. The UN report found that “tens of thousands” were killed in January-May 2009, with most civilian casualties caused by government shelling.

The report relates little that has not appeared in accounts by human-rights groups. But it is unusually blunt, perhaps reflecting exasperation at the Sri Lankan government’s obstructive, aggressive tactics. The three-member panel is distinguished enough to shrug off Sri Lanka’s accusations of bias. The chair, Marzuki Darusman, is a former attorney-general of Indonesia. The report calls the conduct of the war “a grave assault on the entire regime of international law designed to protect individual dignity during both war and peace”.

The government, however, is now too deeply wedded to its strategy of denial to back down even an inch. It lobbied hard against the publication of the UN report, arguing it would damage efforts at national reconciliation. Now that Ban Ki-moon, the UN secretary-general, has ignored its objections, it has whipped up a frenzy of national resentment against the perceived calumnies. This goes down well at home. Standing up to foreign bullying only enhances Mr Rajapaksa’s popularity among the ethnic-Sinhalese majority. Responding to the report, the president has said he would be happy to sit in the electric chair on behalf of his country. A huge turnout is expected for May Day rallies at which he has asked for a show of support for his government.

If the report has brought Mr Rajapaksa short-term political benefits at home, he may also conclude that the diplomatic fallout is easily manageable. Sri Lanka is not without supporters. Just days after the end of the war in 2009, the UN’s Human Rights Council passed a resolution praising its victory, condemning Tiger war crimes and overlooking altogether allegations against the Sri Lankan army. Of its diplomatic allies back then, India is now less staunch. But China and Russia remain firm defenders of the rights of sovereign governments to quell secessionist movements, and do not seem squeamish about the means.

They may be even keener, after the UN-authorised intervention in Libya, to show that was the exception to a rule of non-interference. So Sri Lanka will continue to resist calls for any formal inquiry into the war beyond the “Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission” (LLRC) it established. Though due to report soon, the commission has failed to earn credibility.

In the long run, however, the semi-official status the UN report gives allegations of war crimes will haunt this government. The well-organised, far-flung Tamil diaspora will hound Sri Lanka’s leaders when they go abroad, and put pressure on foreign governments to demand accountability. Skilled at exploiting the rivalry between India and China, whose arms supplies helped win the war, Sri Lanka’s diplomats may argue that they no longer need the West. But, proud of Sri Lanka’s democratic traditions, they will smart at being seen as front men for a shoddy dictatorship, engaged in what now looks like a desperate cover-up.

http://www.economist.com/node/18620572?story_id=18620572&fsrc=rss

After such knowledge, what forgiveness?

Though perceived foreign slights may enhance the government’s standing at home, it is there that the concealment of the truth about the war’s end will do most damage. It is not as if there were no witnesses. Some 300,000 people know first-hand parts of what happened. When the LLRC held hearings in the north, scene of the fighting, survivors told harrowing tales of loss and asked where missing loved ones were. Without answers, it is hard to see how they can be “reconciled”.

Nor does the government show any sign of moving towards a political settlement, to meet the grievances of the Tamil minority that fuelled the conflict. Gordon Weiss, the UN’s spokesman in Colombo during the end of the war, predicts in a forthcoming book (“The Cage”) that Tamil emigration will continue, “encouraged by political stagnation, a lack of rights and rule by fear”. And also by the government’s continued refusal to countenance any serious investigation into how it won the war.

http://www.economist.com/node/18620572?story_id=18620572&fsrc=rss

  • தொடங்கியவர்

Sri Lanka’s dirty war must be investigated - Editorial

Published: May 3 2011 22:23 | Last updated: May 3 2011 22:23

Last year, Ban Ki-moon, the United Nations secretary-general, commissioned a report into human rights violations in the closing months of the decades-long Sri Lankan civil war that ended in 2009. The report points to credible evidence of mass shelling of civilians and summary executions. It also concludes that Sri Lanka’s own internal inquiries into these events have fallen woefully short. But Mr Ban says he is powerless to take any further action. Without the agreement of the host country or a body such as the UN security-council, he says, he cannot launch a judicial investigation.

The secretary-general is wrong to walk away from his own inquiry without putting up a stronger fight. Certainly the obstacles are formidable. The Sinhalese-dominated Sri Lankan government, itself deeply implicated in the alleged abuses, has called the report fiction, and has used an annual May day parade to whip up public opposition to the report. It did not even allow the three UN panel members into the country to carry out an investigation.

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Nor are Russia and China, both members of the security council, likely to support a judicial inquiry they would characterise as “interference” in a sovereign state’s internal affairs. Indeed, some countries with civil uprisings of their own view Sri Lanka’s merciless destruction of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam – a cruel and misguided separatist organisation led by a megalomaniac – as a textbook lesson in how to deal with domestic insurgents. As if this were not enough, Mr Ban is dealing with his own campaign for re-election. Pressing such a controversial issue is not calculated to win him votes.

Yet the findings of the report are so stark, they cannot simply be left hanging. They show that up to 40,000 civilians could have been killed in the closing months of the war. The UN report points to possible war crimes including the shelling of safe zones, bombing of hospitals and summary executions.

The goal of defeating the Tamil Tigers was not wrong. The organisation ruthlessly used civilians as human shields and had few qualms about killing non-combatants. Any judicial inquiry should seek to punish its crimes too. But the government of Mahinda Rajapaksa is in danger of squandering the real opportunities presented by peace through its refusal to seek a broader reconciliation with the disadvantaged Tamil community. A transparent investigation into suspected war crimes is part of that process.

The impasse exposes a faultline between western liberal democracies that want greater respect for human rights and the non-interventionist stance of emerging powers such as China. Yet if Mr Ban lets the issue drop, the message will be clear. Authoritarian governments have carte blanche to deal with internal security issues as they see fit, without regard to the laws of war or international humanitarian rules. If 40,000 – or 400,000 – civilians die in the process, then so be it. That would be a terrible message indeed.

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/3356645a-75b5-11e0-80d5-00144feabdc0.html#axzz1LLNLUIpY

  • தொடங்கியவர்

Opinion: UN should do more on Sri Lanka

The most recent UN report is an even-handed, devastating account of atrocities committed during the war in Sri Lanka. But a more thorough account is needed.

Dr. Karunyan Arulanantham. May 3, 2011 15:31

LOS ANGELES — An independent report on the conduct of the final months of the war in Sri Lanka that so many people have long asked for has finally been released by the United Nations.

It is an even-handed and devastating account of how Tamil people were brutalized by Sri Lanka's government and its military on the one hand, and the Tamil Tigers who claimed to be protecting them on the other.

But the Sri Lankan government began downplaying the U.N. report as inaccurate and biased weeks before it became public — and therein lies a fundamental problem to bringing lasting peace to the island: Colombo sees the search for truth and accountability as an exercise in spin control and denial, since so much blame lies at its doorstep.

This fact underscores the need for a more formal and in-depth, international probe of Sri Lanka’s 26-year war, and the need for the U.N. Security Council to play a more robust role in demanding that probe. It is essential that the United States uses its leadership to push for an investigation to air the truth, and that other members of the Security Council do so as well.

The new U.N. report — an authoritative, 196-page look at the final months of the conflict, commissioned by U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon — demonstrates why a fuller account is necessary.

The report confirmed what many in the international community had suspected. In the closing days of the war, Sri Lankan government forces shelled hospitals and food distribution centers and gathered ethnic Tamil civilians in “no fire zones” and shelled those locations, all the while claiming a policy of “zero civilian casualties.”

The report also condemns the Liberation Tiger Tamils of Eelam (LTTE) for grave transgressions, including the point-blank shooting of civilians attempting to flee the combat zone where they were used as human shields, and for forcefully enlisting child soldiers on a war that they were poised to lose.

This grim catalogue of atrocities is just the first step in the search for truth, and it shows why a deeper investigation is needed.

In the war’s final stages and its aftermath, tens of thousands of Tamil civilians were slaughtered. Survivors long for closure. They search for a sense of justice, security and normalcy in a country whose Orwellian government continues to minimize the extent of damage and wrongdoing, dismissing dissenters as terrorists.

.Although the U.N. report is a powerful indictment, the panel that wrote it serves only in an advisory role to Secretary General Ban.

Three well-respected international human rights attorneys wrote the U.N. report: Marzuki Darusman, the former attorney general of Indonesia and a member of the National Commission of Human Rights in Indonesia; Yasmin Sooka, who served as a commissioner for South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which successfully paved the way for sustained peace in South Africa following the end of apartheid; and Steven Ratner, an international law expert, human rights attorney and University of Michigan law professor.

To launch a full-blown, international investigation of the war, Ban has said the Sri Lankan government must agree — which is unlikely — or the probe must be ordered by an inter-government body, such as the U.N. Security Council or the U.N. Human Rights Council.

Sri Lanka argues that it has set up its own Lesson’s Learned and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC) to investigate the war, but no previous government-appointed panel has ever held anyone accountable, and the LLRC is widely regarded as a charade.

In fact, the new U.N. report says that the LLRC has no mandate for accountability. The United States, which has stood on the sidelines of this conflict for too long and supports the LLRC process, should accept that judgment, demand justice for all Sri Lankans, and call for an impartial, international investigation.

And if the Sri Lankan government feels it has nothing to hide, it should welcome the expertise of the U.N. and its proven track record for ameliorating ethnic conflicts. An LLRC white-wash will not help achieve reconciliation. It will only fuel more division.

Thousands of innocent men, women and children were killed in the final months of the war. And 300,000 survivors, all Tamils, were subjected to internment, deprivations, sexual abuse and disappearances, all amounting to ethnic cleansing. These people and their families deserve to know who was responsible, and to have them held accountable.

As the most recent report recommended, the U.N. should investigate its own conduct in failing to protect the Tamil population. The United States must show the world it will not tolerate war crimes and crimes against humanity going uninvestigated and unpunished.

Dr. Karunyan Arulanantham, M.D., is a member of the Tamil American Peace Initiative, a group of Tamil Americans formed to help bring lasting peace, justice, democracy and good governance to Sri Lanka, and to focus attention on the destruction of Tamil communities and culture caused by the war.

http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/opinion/110503/opinion-sri-lanka-tamil-tigers-war-crimes-united-nations

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