வெள்ளி, 8 மார்ச், 2013

US UNHRC inaction not inconsistent with saving Rajapakse

US UNHRC inaction not inconsistent with saving Rajapakse in US Courts, says TAG

[TamilNet, Friday, 08 March 2013, 01:03 GMT]
The resolution tabled in the Geneva UNHCR sessions by the USA in concert with India, which sidesteps forcing an independent international investigation into the Mu'l'livaaykaal killings, and misleads the Eezham Tamils into a mirage that international community will seek accountability, appears entirely consistent with the intervention of the U.S. State Department in the legal actions pursued by Tamil plaintiffs against Sri Lanka's President Rajapakse, legal sources in Washington said. U.S. is acting as a proxy to Rajapakses in filing legal briefs and replacing Patton Boggs as "the attorneys" for Rajapakse.

"The U.S. State Department exercising the discretionary powers to intervene legally in the case against Rajapakse effectively blocks a pre-trial discovery process which would have uncovered facts related to the Sri Lanka killings. Therefore, this US intervention is not inconsistent with the resolution which does not call for an independent international investigation," spokesperson for Tamils Against Genocide (TAG), a US-based activist organization that seeks legal redress to Tamil victims war, said.

United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia circuit has scheduled March 8th, 9:30 am for the oral argument in the appeal case against Sri Lanka's President Mahinda Rajapakse for civil damages on war-crimes charges filed by three Tamil plaintiffs whose relatives were extra-judicially executed or unlawfully killed under the "command responsibility" of Rajapakse.

United States Justice Department lawyers, under the direction from the State Department, will present the legal oral argument supporting immunity to Defendant-Appellee Rajapakse, legal sources in Washington said. Rajapakse appointed attorneys at Patton Boggs, a large law firm in Washington D.C. will concede their full allocagted time to the US Government to argue the case for Rajapakse, the procedural motions in the case docket indicated.

"The U.S. Government has affirmatively exercised its option, first in the trial court, and now in the appellate court, to intervene to save Rajapakse from legal action by legitimate victims of his allegedly murderous conduct. Ambassador Blake architected policy of appeasing Sri Lanka overlooking the killing more than 80,000 Tamil civilians in Mu'l'livaaykkaal, appears to have even trumped Sri Lanka's continued dismissal of the chorus of disapproval from the West on autocracy-leaning governance matters in Colombo," TAG spokesperson said in an earlier note to TamilNet.

Chronology:

08.03.13 US UNHRC inaction not inconsistent with saving Raj..

07.03.13 Learn Lesson and Respond Concretely: ‘LLRC’ for Ta..

19.01.13 US Court to hear oral argument on war-crime case a..

08.12.12 Fein: U.S.'s immunity determinations flout due pro..

22.11.12 Appellants granted time extention in Rajapakse war..

09.11.12 U.S. reasserts immunity to Rajapakse from war crim..

02.11.12 Rajapakse depends on U.S. to defend War Crimes cha..

04.10.12 Opening brief filed in US war-crimes appeal agains..

24.08.12 US Court of Appeals to hear Rajapakse war-crimes c..

03.04.12 Plaintiffs file appeal on war-crimes case against ..

10.03.12 Tamil plaintiffs to appeal ruling on war crimes ca..

04.03.12 Worried Colombo consulted top D.C. law firm for ad..