Lanka minister for boycott of US brand names

Colombo: Sri Lankans should boycott American products in protest against the US sponsored resolution against Sri Lanka at the UN Human Rights Council, a government minister said on Tuesday.

"I will stop using my gmail account. Let us boycott Pepsi, Coca Cola, Google and McDonalds", Wimal Weerawansa, the Minister of Housing and Construction said, addressing an anti-US demonstration here.

Weerawansa's National Freedom Front is a constituent party of the ruling coalition of President Mahinda Rajapaksa.

"This is an US-LTTE resolution", Weerawansa charged adding that the ulterior motive was to haul Rajapaksa and the Sri Lankan military leaders before the International Criminal Court (ICC).

"There will be representatives from five countries coming to Sri Lanka if the resolution gets passed at the UNHRC", Weerawansa said. That would be the first step to charge Sri Lankan President with war crimes, he added.

The US resolution aimed at committing Colombo to implement its own Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC) recommendations is being branded as interference in Sri Lanka's sovereignty.

The LLRC was cited as Colombo's answer to international calls for accountability over alleged rights abuses that took place during the final phase of the military campaign against the LTTE, who fought to set up a separate homeland for the Tamil minority.

http://zeenews.india.com/news/south-asia/lanka-minister-for-boycott-of-us-brand-names_763664.html

Sri Lanka gov't minister urges boycott of US goods

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — A government minister urged Sri Lankans on Tuesday to boycott American products because U.S. support of a U.N. human rights resolution would encourage separatism in the island nation.

A resolution calling on Sri Lanka to investigate alleged abuses during the country's civil war is expected to be voted on next week by the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva.

Government troops defeated the Tamil Tiger rebels to end a quarter-century civil war in 2009, and Housing Minister Wimal Weerawansa told a protest meeting that the resolution amounts to calling for the revival of the rebel group.

Sri Lanka's government has organized a series of protests against the resolution. It believes the resolution is inteference and defends its own investigation, while human rights activists say Sri Lanka's efforts have fallen short of international standards.

The resolution calls on Sri Lanka to investigate allegations of human rights abuses by both the government troops and Tamil Tiger rebels in the final months of the war. A U.N panel's investigation found tens of thousands of people may have been killed, largely through shell fire by the government troops.

Weerawansa said the resolution would be destructive to the postwar atmosphere. "Instead of promoting ethnic reconciliation, it will hamper that process and would increase acrimony and rancor among the communities," said Weerawansa.

"If we submit to this resolution, Tiger terrorists will raise their head again."

He called on people to boycott American brands such as Coca-Cola, Pepsi, KFC, McDonalds and Google's email service Gmail.

"We must show our protest even in a small manner to U.S. for the ill-treatment they are throwing at us," Weerawansa said.

The U.S. is canvassing support for the resolution and is expected to introduce it.

http://www.ajc.com/news/nation-world/sri-lanka-govt-minister-1383217.html

US defends resolution on Sri Lanka, says without reconciliation the island risks conflict

WASHINGTON — The U.S. warned Tuesday that Sri Lanka risks renewed conflict unless it addresses war crimes allegations, while rights groups said that abuses by security forces continue, three years after fighting against Tamil rebels ended.

Sri Lanka has reacted angrily to the growing international pressure to account for thousands of civilians suspected to have died in the final months of the quarter-century-long war, when government forces finally crushed the separatist Tamil Tigers.

A new documentary by Britain’s Channel 4 television that screens Wednesday alleges that several war crimes suspects are now in senior government posts. It also details an alleged attack on a U.N. food distribution station by government forces, shelling of a “no-fire zone” intended as a refuge for Tamil civilians, and contends that the Tamil Tiger leader Velupillai Prabhakaran’s 12-year-old son was executed.

Sri Lanka has dismissed the documentary as influenced by Tamil Tiger sympathizers, and a draft resolution introduced by the U.S. to the U.N. Human Rights Council as an interference in its affairs. The government has organized protests at home against the resolution, and a Cabinet minister has called for a boycott of U.S. products such as Coca-Cola, Pepsi, KFC, McDonalds and Google’s email service Gmail.

The 47-nation U.N. rights body in Geneva is expected to vote next week on the resolution that calls on Sri Lanka to investigate allegations of human rights abuses by both the government troops and Tamil Tiger rebels in the final months of the war in 2009, and implement the recommendations of its own reconciliation panel.

A U.N panel of experts reported in 2011 that tens of thousands of people may have been killed in those months, largely through shell fire by the government troops. The Tigers were accused of using civilians as human shields and shooting those who tried to escape.

In Washington, Robert Blake, U.S. assistant secretary of state for South and Central Asia, said that accountability and reconciliation were in Sri Lanka’s best interests, so “they really can achieve peace and security and not sow anger in their own community that could give rise to new violence.”

“Experience in many civil conflicts around the world has shown that countries that don’t take adequate measures to address reconciliation and accountability frequently experience a regeneration of the insurgency that they faced,” he told The Associated Press. “We could see very much that similar situation in Sri Lanka.”

He said that since the war ended, the government has done a lot to build roads and infrastructure in the north of the island where the Tigers had fought for a separate state, independent of the ethnic Sinhalese majority. But he said many Tamils in the north feel they remain under “military occupation.” He called for provincial elections to devolve power, and for Tamils to take more control of policing the region.

Sri Lanka, however, says the U.S.-backed resolution will only undermine its reconciliation efforts and fuel conflict. In Colombo on Tuesday, Housing Minister Wimal Weerawansa said the resolution would encourage separatism and terrorism by the Tamil Tigers.

“If one is genuinely interested in Sri Lanka, it’s important to understand the ground reality and to give time and space for reconciliation,” a government spokesman, Bandula Jayasekara, said in an email to AP.

Rights activists say Sri Lanka’s homegrown efforts at accountability have so far fallen far short of international standards. And in a report launched in Geneva on Tuesday — rejected by the government as misinformation — Amnesty International said dozens of people in Sri Lanka have been abducted and tortured by security forces since 2009, and hundreds are being held in illegal detention. Among those detained are suspected Tamil Tigers, but also lawyers, journalists and human rights activists, said Sam Zarifi, Amnesty’s Asia-Pacific director.

He said the lack of accountability for severe rights violations “has sent a very clear signal to security forces throughout Sri Lanka that they can get away with abduction, torture, even murder, without having to fear that they will have to suffer any consequences for it.”

Additionally, rights activists have accused Sri Lanka of trying to intimidate Sri Lankan civil society representatives in Geneva. In an unusual move, the U.N. Human Rights Council’s president, Laura Dupuy Lasserre, voiced concern over unauthorized photographing and videoing of activists. Sri Lanka responded that those concerns were “pure conjecture” circulated by people with a political agenda.

Eileen Donahoe, U.S. ambassador to the council, said Sri Lanka had reacted “very negatively” to the resolution and has fought it “tooth and nail” but she expected it to pass.

She said the resolution has been toned down from an earlier version that sought a government action plan on accountability and reconciliation by June. It now calls for the U.N. Human Rights Commissioner to report to the council a year from now on the steps Sri Lanka has taken.

Sri Lanka enjoys considerable support in the U.N. rights body. Russia, China, Cuba and other Asian, African and Latin American countries are expected to vote against the resolution.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/us-defends-resolution-on-sri-lanka-says-without-reconciliation-the-island-risks-conflict/2012/03/13/gIQATUbu9R_story_1.html

அமெரிக்காவிலுள்ள சிங்கள காட்டுமிராண்டிகள் சிலர் நானறிந்த தமிழர் ஒருவருக்கு "Gmail" பாவிக்க வேண்டாம் என அறிவுறுத்தி உள்ளார்களாம். எனக்கு மீள அனுப்பப்பட்ட அந்த மின்னஞ்சல் உள்ளடக்கம் மட்டும் கீழே தரப்படுகிறது:

Do not email me using your Gmail account!

Hon Minister Wimal Weerawanshe called on all Sri Lankans to boycott American products including Gmail, Google and beverages originating from America. Addressing a public meeting in Hyde Park corner, Colombo 02, today against the US sponsored resolution in Geneva the Minster said “we should boycottAmerican products in order to show them the strength of our nation, they will feel the effects of our actions.

Find Sri Lankan originated email provider to communicate with me. Please!

விமல் வீரவன்சா ஒரு அரசியல் கோமாளி,அந்த வேஷத்தை நாங்களும் அணியவேண்டுமா?

அமெரிக்காவின், GSP பிச்சையில் வாழ்பவர்களின் திமிரைப் பாருங்களேன்!

விமல் வீரவன்சா ஒரு அரசியல் கோமாளி,அந்த வேஷத்தை நாங்களும் அணியவேண்டுமா?

அவர் கோமாளி என்பது உலகத்திற்கு தெரியாது.

அவரை, அமைச்சராக , அரசின் கூற்றாக உலகிற்கு காட்டி பிரச்சாரம் செய்வது எமது கடமை.